tLIBRARYOFCONGRESS.! 

ff-P |w¥'t]J" I 

I :^//,e//-CA8 • t 

* i 

* UNITED STATES OF AMERICA | 



THE 



RIGHT WAY; 



OR, 



By J. T. CRANE, A.M., 

OF IHB KE-W-JEBSEY OONVEBENOE. 



I will teach you the good and the bight vat.— 1 Sam. xii, 28. 

The statutes of the Lord are bioht, rejoicing the heart: . . . and 
in keeping of them there is great reward.— Psa. xix, 8, 11. 



PUBLISHED BY CARLTON <fe PHILLIPS, 

200 KVLBEBBT-8TBBEX. 

1864. 



' C 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, 

BY CARLTON & PHILLIPS, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District 
of New-York. 



The Lectures wHcli form this volume were de- 
livered, in substance, before the students of the 
New-Jersey Conference Seminary, on Sabbath 
afternoons, in prosecution of the plan for prac- 
tical instruction in morals and religion. They 
were begun without any design of publication ; 
but as the work of preparation progressed, the 
writer became more and more interested in the 
theme, till he resolved to review his notes, and 
offer them to the public through the press. 

The subject is one of unquestionable import- 
ance. Every being capable of moral action, 
who must reap even as he has sown, needs to 
know well the law which pronounces upon the 
quality of his deeds. The youth should " cleanse 
his way," " by taking heed thereto," according 



4 



PREFACE. 



to God's word. Those who " hunger and thirst 
after righteousness," are here taught what is 
acceptable to their final Judge. And the trans- 
gressor, comparing his life with the divine 
standard, measures his offences, and finds that 
" hj the law is the knowledge of sin." In refer- 
ence to this world it is said, " If any man de- 
sireth life, and loveth many days that he may 
see good, let him depart from evil and do good." 
And in respect to the world to come, the reve- 
lator writes : " Blessed are they that do his 
commandments, that they may have right to the 
tree of hfe, and may enter in, through the 
gates, into the city." The law is God's idea of 
the true, the wise, and the good. Compassing 
time, and stretching on to eternity, it teaches 
men how to secure their true interests here and 
hereafter. 

But while all admit the necessity for a clear 
understanding of the law, it is somewhat singu- 
lar that so little has been done to disseminate 
popular expositions of it. Search was made by 
the writer, not long since, for a book of thia 



PKEFACE. 



5 



kind, at the publication rooms of several of our 
leading denominations, and in no case could the 
officials produce, at that time, more than a par- 
tial explanation of two or three isolated com- 
mandments. He therefore concluded, that to 
furnish a volume of small size and inconsiderable 
cost, giving, in familiar language, an exhibition 
of the vital truths graven by the finger of God 
on the tables of stone, would be doing a good 
work. 

He proposed to himself the preparation, not 
of a ponderous treatise for the learned, but a 
plain, brief explanation of the Decalogue for the 
use of those not familiar with libraries, and espe- 
cially for the young. There were times, indeed, 
when the idea of attempting something more 
voluminous and elaborate was suggested: but 
as this would frustrate the original design, it 
was not adopted. Consequently, an unpretend- 
ing volume is laid before the public upon a 
subject which furnishes abundant material for 
a treatise of another literary order. The writer 
lays his little book before the public, saying, in 



6 



PREFACE. 



the language of Bishop Home, in the preface to 
his Commentary on the •Psalms : — 

"And now could the author flatter himself 
that any one would take half the pleasure in 
reading the following exposition which he hath 
taken in writing it, he would not fear the loss 
of his labour." 

J. T. Craio). 

N. J. Conference Seminaet, 
Jan. 18, 1853. 



€anhnts. 



Lkctueb Paoe 
Introduction 9 

I. — First Commandment 25 

n. — Second Commandment 41 

m. — Third Commandment 62 

IV. — Fourth Commandment 79 

V. — Fifth Commandment 102 

VI. — Sixth Commandment 122 

Vn. — Sixth Commandment, (The Peace Peinoiple) 144 

Vm. — Seventh Commandment 159 

IX. — ^EiaHTH Commandment 192 

X. — ^NiNTH Commandment 216 

XL — Tenth Commandment 246 



The nature of Yirtue lias been a theme of dis- 
cussion among thinkers of all ages of the world, 
from Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, down to 
Hobbes, Bentham, Palej, and M'Intosh. But 
to the Christian philosopher there occurs a ques- 
tion far loftier than those which relate to mere 
human action and affection, and yet so intimately 
connected with the problem of human morals, 
that it seems to me that some clearness of view 
must be had upon it before any satisfactory light 
is thrown upon this subject of investigation. 
That question is this : "Wherein consists the holi- 
ness of God ? 

It may be said that this matter is too high, 
and too deep, for human intellect ; and that to 
attempt investigation, however humbly and rev- 
erently, is presumptuous. Still, it must be ad- 
mitted that, in His own word, holiness is ascribed 
to God ; and it becomes us, as grateful recipients 
of revelation, not to content ourselves with sounds 
without ideas, but to labour to comprehend what 
God has spoken. Every word is designed to 



10 



INTRODUCTION. 



convey a thouglit ; and though the idea conveyed 
may often fail to grasp the entire magnitude of 
the subject, yet it need never be self-contradic- 
tory, nor wholly confused. Let us then pause a 
moment, and ask, humbly but earnestly, what 
our great Teacher would have us understand by 
the various passages of Holy Writ, wherein, he 
claims that his nature is holy, and his acts right ? 

One theologian defines God's holiness to be 
" the purity and rectitude of his nature but 
this merely substitutes other terms, which leave 
all as dark as ever. K it be said that he is holy, 
because all his acts accord perfectly with his 
divine nature, the reply may be made that the 
acts of all beings, so far as they are uninflu- 
enced from without, are consistent with their 
nature. K we say that sin is transgression of 
law, and that God is free from sin, we assert 
merely that Jehovah has no superior whose laws 
he is bound to obey. K Satan, with all his mahg- 
nity, were the most powerful being in the uni- 
verse, and consequently exalted above all law, 
and all control, would holiness be an attribute 
of his character, as it now is of God's ? "Would 
the laws which he might impose upon other be- 
ings be holy, just, and right, simply because they 
sprung from an omnipotent will ? The supposi- 
tion is absurd ; the reason and the heart revolt 
against it at once. 

The holiness of God, then, must be something 
more than an incidental result of his supremacy. 



INTBODUCTION. 



11 



It consists not in the fact tliat Ms acts are in 
harmony with his adorable nature ; since all un- 
influenced action harmonizes with the nature of 
the actor, whether holj or unholy. If his laws 
are right, because Omnipotence wills them, then 
the laws of an omnipotent Apollyon would be 
right. After considerable reflection upon this 
interesting topic, the conclusion to which my 
mind tends is, that God is love; and his holi- 
ness consists in the fact that all the divine affec- 
tions are in accordance with the spirit of benevo- 
lence ; and all the divine acts, laws, and plans, 
have for their object the accomplishment of good, 
and the promotion of happiness. 

The objection that God demands obedience to 
laws which are sometimes burdensome to fallen 
man, has no weight ; since that which is distaste- 
ful to an evil nature may, nevertheless, prove its 
greatest good. 'Nor is the principle disproved 
by the fact, that in some cases we are unable to 
perceive how the penalties denounced against 
sin work for the beneflt of the sinner. That 
which is death to the offender, may, while it is 
no more than justice to him, work for the good 
of countless beings, who are warned by his fate. 
And even the bitter torments of eternal death 
may be less disastrous to an immortal spirit than 
to be suffered to exist forever in sin, unarrested 
and uncontrolled. To what enormous heights 
of wickedness such a being might rise if God 
should take off the restraining hand, and to 



12 



INTRODUCTION. 



what depths of misery he might sink, we know 
not. 

]^or would God's benevolence be cast into 
doubt, if we should be imable to perceive how 
some of his general laws produce happiness. 
What we now see of his plans and their results 
is a very small part of the whole ; and that 
which is now wrapped in darkness, may be 
plain when we shall view it with stronger vis- 
ion and clearer light. An engine, constructed 
with consummate skill, may be performing its 
allotted work with exquisite precision and cer- 
tainty ; and yet some person, ignorant of mech- 
anism, looks in at some narrow aperture, where 
he can see but two or three of its numerous 
wheels, and he fancies that the whole is revolv- 
ing in useless, aimless confusion. Thus vain 
man objects to the decisions of Jehovah, forget- 
ting that, as in the prophet's vision, there are 
"wheels within wheels," and that what seems 
confusion to him may in truth be "order in- 
finite." God will rule and overrule, and cause 
all to work harmoniously for his own glory, and 
the good of aggregated being. 

If these opinions be correct, the laws which 
God has given man are right, not because they 
are enforced by infinite power, but because they 
originate in infinite love, directed by infinite 
wisdom ; and true virtue is conformity of heart 
and life to the will of God. The really virtuous 
man is a "partaker of the divine nature." 



INTEODTTCTION. 



13 



2 Peter i, 4. In other words, genuine virtue is 
enlightened love, and " love is the fulfilling of 
the law." God's word is given to guide those 
who seek true rectitude. These blessed precepts 
spring from the fountain of infinitely wise be-, 
nevolence, and are a part of the stream which 
"makes glad the city of our God." He who 
obeys them has gained true wisdom, as well as 
true virtue. He is employed in the noblest 
work of created beings, the promotion of happi- 
ness — a work in which Jehovah himself delights. 

But it does not follow from this that present 
utility is the test and measure of right. Poison 
may be sweet to the taste, while it "worketh 
death." That which gives temporary pleasure 
to ourselves and others, may, in the end, destroy 
ail happiness. Human wisdom, unaided, cannot 
determine at a glance the moral character of a 
given act. Not only must the immediate, palpa- 
ble result be considered; but the most remote 
consequences of the act, its subtlest influences, 
its reflex power upon the character of the actor, 
and the degree in which it will modify the opin- 
ions, the affections, and the conduct of those who 
witness it at the time, or who shall hear of it, it 
may be, in far-off lands and distant ages, are all 
to be taken into the account. Where, then, shall 
we find a test of the wise and the right ? Here 
man sees but a part of the consequences of his 
own action. He casts a stone into the stream of 
time, and the rapid circles break upon shores 



14 



INTRODUCTION. 



which his eye never saw, and sweep on down- 
wards, even to the eternal ocean. To recur 
to an illustration already employed, we find 
ourselves unable to comprehend the details of 
the complicated engine. "We see but .a part 
of the levers and bands ; we behold a shaft, but 
fail to learn how it is attached to the rest, and 
perceive a wheel, without detecting those into 
which it plays. It is wise, therefore, not to de- 
pend upon our own limited reason and imperfect 
investigation, but to ask wisdom of the great 
Master-Builder who looks through the whole, 
and sees the end from the beginning. The con- 
clusion of the whole matter is, that although the 
expedient is always the right, yet the expedient 
can be pointed out with certainty by God alone. 
Utihty, in the best sense of the term, may be the 
essence of practical virtue, but " the only wise 
God" alone can determine the truly useful. 

Another inquiry intimately connected with the 
subject of morals is. What is Conscience ? And 
what are our obligations with reference to it? 
Yarious names have been given to this inward 
monitor, and various conflicting views have been 
taken of its nature. Some consider it merely 
the opinion which men form of their own acts, 
which opinion, they argue, is so modified by out- 
ward circumstances, as well as personal peculi- 
arities, that conscience, so called, is but the 
creature of accidents, and its decisions are of no 
authority. Others, with Rousseau and Dr. Reid, 



INTRODUCTION. 



16 



look upon it as tlie witness for God, direct, 
authoritative, and infallible. Without discus- 
sing the yarious theories which have been set 
forth, or affecting to correct what has been done 
by others, I may be permitted to state what 
seems to me, at least at this present time, a plain, 
satisfactory view of the matter. Conscience, in 
the true sense of the term, is that faculty of a 
moral agent which impels him to do what he be- 
lieves to be right, and avoid what he believes 
to be wrong ; and which also causes emotions of 
pleasure or pain, as its impulses are obeyed or 
disregarded. The judgments upon which it acts 
are based upon what is supposed to be the will 
of God ; and it derives its beauty, strength, and 
value, from a feeling of obligation to obey God — 
a sense of subjection to divine law. There are, 
it is true, various mental promptings and retri- 
butions arising from the social affections, general 
benevolence, rational conviction of expediency, 
regard for civil law, dread of a human superior, 
or of public opinion ; but these, though they may 
often be valuable, do not seem worthy to be 
ranked with the impulsive and retributive in- 
fluences of Conscience. As an endowment, this 
moral sense not only distinguishes those beings 
which are capable of moral action from those 
which are not, but also, I am inclined to think, 
distinguishes immortal beings from those which 
are created for time only. 
The province of this witness for God is, then, 



16 



INTEODIJCTION. 



to give an impulse in favour of the supposed 
right, and against the supposed wrong ; and to 
impart an emotion of pleasure for every effort 
after sincere obedience, and to inflict an emotion 
of pain for every act done in violation of the 
sense of duty. 

With this brief expression of opinion with re 
gard to the theory, let us proceed to consider, 
with equal brevity, the duties pertaining to Con- 
science. For the sake of distinctness, I will treat 
of them under three several heads :• — 

I. The impulsive and retributive power of 
Conscience should be cultivated. 

This is done by cherishing the feeling of obli- 
gation to obey God — ^the sense of subjection to 
divine law. The soul should accustom itself to 
adore the majesty of Jehovah, exult in his good- 
ness, and tremble at his power, and to hear, every 
moment, the dread words, "I am the Lokd thy 
God." Meditation upon the awful character of 
Him who thus lays claim to our reverence, love, 
and obedience ; upon the relation which we sus- 
tain to him ; and upon the infinite interests at 
stake, will tend to create and keep alive an in- 
tense desire to be conformed to that divine will, 
and kindle it into a ruling passion. Conscience 
should be prompt, energetic, and all-controlling 
in its appeals. Its undivided approval should 
be bliss, and its reproaches should fall upon the 
heart like the cutting lash of the scorpion. But 
to be thus influential, it must be strengthened, 



INTRODUCTION. 



as are our other powers, by right exercise. The 
power of conscience increases by conscientious 
action. The wise man "hungers and thirsts 
after righteousness." lie carefully examines the 
moral aspect of his actions, his plans, his words, 
and even the hidden thoughts and intents of 
his heart ; and for the sake of duty, he is ever 
ready to sacrifice worldly advantage, to face op- 
position, and suffer pain. By rigid adherence 
to the right, his virtue grows in vigour as life 
wears on ; and the temptations which beset his 
path are overcome with more and more ease, 
till they give way, without a conflict, before his 
steady steps, and he verifies the saying of the 
Patriarch of Uz : " He that hath clean hands, 
shall be stronger and stronger." 

On the other hand, he who habitually disre- 
gards his convictions of duty, will find each trans- 
gression of a series attended with less remorse 
than the preceding, and each successive tempta- 
tion armed with new power, till his conscience 
no longer lifts up the voice of remonstrance, and 
he is numbered among the unhappy souls who 
have gone astray till they " cannot cease from 
sin." True, some from their earliest years seem 
endowed with a more sensitive conscience than 
others : still, cultivation or neglect will work its 
appropriate results upon all. He who would 
have conscience exercise its due influence upon 
his character and his life, must bow his head and 
listen intently to the still small voice. 



18 



INTBODUCTION. 



n. The Conscience must be duly directed. 

Rousseau apostrophizes conscience as a " divine 
instinct, immortal and heavenly voice, sure guide 
of a being ignorant and limited, but intelligent 
and free ; infallible j udge of good and evil." But 
in what human breast is such a conscience to be 
found? The existence of an innate infallible 
conscience can be demonstrated neither by the 
present experience nor the past history of our 
fallen race. Children, whose training has been 
neglected, are as ignorant of ethics as of natural 
science. Even the strongest advocates of the in- 
fallibility of the inborn moral sense, when their 
attention is drawn to some intricate question in 
casuistry, have recourse, not to their "divine 
instinct," but to acknowledged rules, and to their 
ordinary powers of reasoning and comparing: 
and the more judicious and reliable the Christian 
becomes, the more carefully does he disregard 
unaccountable impulses, and seek to conform his 
life to the revealed standard of duty. 

It is evident that there may be strong convic- 
tions of obligation, and strong desires to obey, 
where there are but confused and even totally 
incorrect views of the will of the lawgiver. The 
obedient son, who goes with cheerful step to 
labour in the vineyard, may mistake some noxi- 
ous weed for the grape of Eshcol. Saul, breath- 
mg threatenings and slaughter against the saints, 
"lived in all good conscience before God," as 
well as when he laid down his life and won a 



IITTEODUCTION. 



19 



martyr's crown at Eome. The follower of Con- 
facius, offering sacrifice at tlie tomb of Hs an- 
cestors ; tlie Tartar, attaching his paper prayer 
to the windmill; the Hindu devotee casting 
himself down before the murderous wheels of his 
idol's car, may all feel an approying emotion. 
Conscientiousness may help on the folHes of the 
heathen, as well as the prayers, and praises, and 
good works of the Christian. The sense of obli- 
gation may be active and tender, and yet be so 
left in the dark as even to prompt to the wrong. 
It sounds a warning against sin, it demands that 
the supposed right be done, but does not inspire 
knowledge. If confused in his notions of duty, 
even the sincere follower of Christ may go astray 
in his ignorance, and thus his usefulness and his 
spiritual progress are obstructed, if not totally 
destroyed. Revelation, direct or traditional, is 
the only sure guide. If we turn away our eyes 
from its bright rays, we grope in uncertain twi- 
light, or are lost in midnight darkness. Passion, 
appetite, interest, prejudice, may wrest judg- 
ment and darken counsel. The true standard, 
the law of right, and our only infallible guide, 
is God's word. The heathen may possess frag- 
ments of traditionary truth, but " we have a more 
sure word of prophecy, whereunto ye do well 
that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in 
a dark place." Conscience and revealed morality 
are correlative, as Light and the optic nerve are 
created for each other. 



20 



INTRODUCTION. 



Every one then to whom the word of God is 
given, is bound in reason and in conscience to 
" search the Scriptures," asking wisdom of Him 
who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth 
not. He thus shall tread the noblest field of 
knowledge open to human investigation. Re- 
course should be had to every available means 
to gain clear ideas of what Jehovah demands. 
Reading, reflection, prayer, the advice of the 
pious and the judicious, may all be employed 
with advantage. The divine law must be studied 
diligently, perseveringly, and with sincere and 
eager desires to learn the whole truth, till its 
golden precepts are graven upon the memory, 
and its pure spirit fills the heart. 

IS'othing is more common among men than 
perverted and defective conscientiousness. The 
ignorant Papist, who, apparently without any 
compunctious visitings, can drink to intoxication, 
fight, lie, and profane the Sabbath, is over- 
whelmed with horror at the idea of eating flesh 
on Friday ; and if he has even tasted, is haunted 
by keen remorse till penance and priestly pardon 
have lulled his conscience to rest. But every 
branch of the Christian Church is shorn of a part 
of its strength, by the fact, that some of its mem- 
bers cannot be made to see that to practise cer- 
tain things which they neglect, and to abstain 
from certain others to which they are given, is a 
Christian duty. From the errors of early train- 
ing, from personal peculiarities, or fi-om the force 



INTRODUCTION. 



21 



of appetite, passion, and prejudice, they find it 
well-nigh impossible to reason correctly when 
certain moral questions are brought to the bar 
of judgment. ISTay, the easily-besetting sin may 
be complacently exalted into a cardinal virtue — 
or, at the worst, the accidental excess of a virtue. 
A defect in temper or habit may hang like a 
millstone about the neck of a man, and he, 
nevertheless, be so infatuated as to pride himself 
upon it, and count it his strength. At the same 
time, he will reason very justly respecting the 
errors and defects of others ; and the magnitude 
of the beam in his own eye does not prevent his 
detecting the smallest mote in his brother's. 
How common it is to see men in extreme dis- 
tress about the sins of other people, while they 
bestow hardly a glance upon their own! A 
very tender conscience may be palsied on one 
side, and be totally blind in one eye. What 
we would denounce as avarice in another, in 
ourselves we defend and approve as prudence ; 
that which in another we would style stubborn- 
ness and passion, we call, in ourselves, due firm- 
ness and generous spirit; and every moral de- 
formity which we condemn and hate in others, we 
baptize by a very smooth name, when we detect 
its presence in ourselves. 

Again, men are acute in detecting, and severe 
in condemning, those sins to which they them- 
selves are not given. The passionate man, for- 
getful of his fierce anger and its guilt, is zealous 



22 



INTRODUCTION. 



in Ids efforts to reform his neighbour, whom he 
suspects of being covetous. The volatile pro- 
fessor, whose endless levities render his sincerity 
questionable, lashes the more sober Christian for 
his gloomy repulsive countenance ; while the sour 
ascetic frets even at the cheerfulness of youth, as 
if it were the worst of sins. The one who is care- 
less in his business rails at the man who is care- 
less in his language ; and the one who is very 
slow to give his money to good objects, sees his 
brother's sin of pride in all its horrors ; while 
the officious, censorious brother, by his unspar- 
ing reproofs, and ungenerous insinuations, keeps 
the whole Church in angry ferment, and atones 
for his own deficiency in spiritual things by call- 
ing attention to the spiritual defects of the rest. 
Thus it goes, through the whole roxmd of pecu- 
liarity and circumstances, and each 

" Compounds for sins he is inclined to, 
By damning those he has no mind to." 

This tendency to a one-sided conscience makes 
it the duty of every man to scan closely his 
opinions upon moral subjects, and see whether 
any error has been introduced by circumstances. 
Happy is he who has been able to escape the 
entanglements of passion and prejudice, and who, 
at all times, sees every sin in its deformity, and 
every virtue in its true beauty and glory. 

ni. The Conscience must be obeyed in all 
things. 



INTEODUCTION. 



23 



This proposition needs no argument or illus- 
tration, as it teaches merely that men should 
do, in all cases, what they honestly believe to be 
right. Each is responsible for his own action. 
He may seek light from his fellows, but he is 
bound to follow his own clearest convictions. 
He may, without guilt, defer to the opinions of 
others so far as to refrain from what he deems 
allowable ; but he cannot, for the same reason, 
neglect what he believes to be obKgatory, or 
do what he considers wrong. After an earnest 
and honest examination of controverted points, 
he must take that course which will enable him 
to " have always a conscience void of offence 
toward God and toward men." The enticements 
of sin, the frowns of the world, and even the 
terrors of death, must never induce him to 
abandon his integrity. And he who gives him- 
self up to the guidance of an enlightened con- 
science, will find a plain and a safe, as well as a 
high and holy way. ^^JVb lion shall le there^ 
nor (my rcmenous 'beast shall go 'wp thereon^ it 
shall not te found there} hut the redeemed shall 
walk th&reP 



THE RIGHT WAT. 



I. 

FIRST COMMANDMENT. 

I AM THE LORD THY GOD: THOU SHALT HAVE NO OTHER 
GODS BEFORE ME. 

How imposing was the sight, when the law was 
given to Israel ! The declivities of Sinai were 
hidden by the thousands who had gathered to 
the spot. Expectation and trembling awe filled 
each heart, as they lifted their eyes to the dark 
and barren crags which hung far above their 
heads. Their leader had often brought them 
messages from the unseen Jehovah ; but to-day, 
the Invisible was to address them in person. 
Already there were tokens of his coming. A 
cloud of pitchy darkness enshrouded the summit 
of the mountain, and a dense smoke went up 
" as the smoke of a fiirnace." Quivering tongues 
of fire shot forth : thunder rolled its mighty 
voice through the skies, and echoed down the 
deep mountain gorges : and the mount itself 
quaked exceedingly." And then there came 
2 



26 



THE EIGHT WAY. 



a tmmpet-blast, sounding long, and waxing 
louder, and still louder, till valley and hill rung 
with the echo. Moses spake, and " God answered 

^ him with a voice." That voice proclaimed the 
divine law in the ears of Israel's tribes. But the 
sounds that conveyed the will of God to them, 
filled their hearts with dismay and terror. The 
cloudy darkness, lighted up only by the lurid 
flash of the lightning, the reverberating thun- 

. ders, the trumpet-blast, long and loud, the 
ascending smoke, the trembling mountain, all 
conspired to terrify the beholders. And as the 
law was proclaimed amid this awful scene, as com- 
mandment after commandment, uttered from 
the cloud, came rolling down from above, and 
broke upon their astonished ears, the terror- 
stricken multitude began to recede from the 
mount, and at last they stood afar off ; and with 
white lips they said to the interpreter of Jehovah, 
" Speak thou with us, and we will hear : but let 
not God speak with us, lest we die." 

Thus the Deoai^ogue was made known to Israel. 
This law is a revelation of God's idea of the 
holy, the right, and the expedient. This law 
points out to man the path of physical well-being, 
mental growth, and moral advancement. This 
law is wrought into the frame-work of the cre- 
ation. It is interwoven with man's nerves, and 
traced upon the solid bones of his strength. It 
is written upon the golden bowl, the silver 
cord, the wheel at the cistern, and the pitcher at 



FIRST COMMANDMENT. 



27 



the foimtaiii. The skies above, and the earth 
beneath, bear its impress. All nature is so ad- 
justed to it, as to render obedience conducive, and 
disobedience destructive, to happiness and univer- 
sal well-being. And to those who forget its wise 
teaching's, or trample them in the dust, the 
searching question may well be put: "What 
profit had ye in those things whereof ye are now 
ashamed ? For the end of those things is death." 

This law, wi'itten upon tablets of stone in 
token of its imperishable nature, is still binding 
upon all men. Christian, these precepts tell you 
how you may order your conduct aright. They 
reveal to you the mode in which you may serve 
God, serve your generation, and promote your 
own present and eternal good. Hardened trans- 
gressor, dull in vision, and slow of heart, who 
art heaping up wrath against the day of wrath, 
this law comes forth against thee ; and Kke the 
golden rod in the angel's hand, it metes out the 
length and breadth, the height and depth, of thy 
sins. It measures the altitude of that high moun- 
tain of transgression which thou art building, to 
descend upon thy own soul, when the set time 
comes, in avalanches of woe. 

Whoever, whatever thou art, reader, the voice 
that spake on Sinai now speaks to thee : " I am 
THE Lord thy God : thott shalt have no other 
GODS before me." Jehovah claims sovereignty 
over man. He never waits for our consent, nor 
parleys with unbelief and rebellion. Whatever 



28 



THE EIGHT WAT. 



doubts man may indulge, however slow lie may 
be to own tbe authority of Heaven, that authority 
is asserted. The Creator waits not for the tedious 
debates of dim-eyed human reason, nor for the 
reluctant submission of hard hearts and stubborn 
wills. He at once puts forth a claim which he 
will vindicate with all the fulness of his love, 
and all the thunders of his power : " I am the 
Lord thy God." 

I. The BEmG who thus addresses ma-n". — 
That man may know his Sovereign, he has de- 
scribed himself. When the prophet on the 
mount sought clearer views of the divine nature, 
when he prayed with intense desire — " I beseech 
thee, show me thy glory" — the great Jehovah 
" descended in a cloud, and stood with him 
there." " And the Lord passed by before him, 
and proclaimed. The Lord, the Lord God, mer- 
ciful and gi'acious, long-suffering, and abundant 
in goodness and truth ; keeping mercy for thou- 
sands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin, 
and that will by no means clear the guilty." 
Here, then, is a portraiture of Jehovah, as given 
by himself; here is our God, unfolding his ador- 
able nature to the eyes of man ; here is the express 
image of his person, the outbeaming of the glory 
for a manifestation of which Moses prayed. Let 
us pause a moment over this divine dehneation. 

1. The names h J which he reveals himself to 
man, — " the Lord God." Li primitive languages, 



FIRST COMMANDMENT. 



29 



all names have signification. Abraham is the 
" father of a great multitude Jacob is a " sup- 
planter Messiah is the " Anointed." When 
Moses saw the bush enveloped in the flame, yet 
unconsumed, he drew near, and heard a voice, 
commanding him to bear a message to the op- 
pressed in Egypt. With reverence and awe he 
said to the Invisible: "When I shall say to 
them. The God of your fathers hath sent me 
unto you : and they shall say to me. What is 
his name ? what shall I say unto them ?" And 
God said unto Moses, I am that I am. . . . Thus 
shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I am 
hath sent me unto you." " This is my name for- 
ever : this is my memorial unto all generations." 

This title expresses existence, without begin- 
ning, or end, or change. The child looks onward 
to the future, and with hope swelling his bosom, 
exclaims joyously, " I shall be." The way-worn 
pilgrim of earth gazes pensively upon the past, 
and says with a sigh, " I have been." Soon he 
sleeps in the dust ; and those who come after 
him speak of him, saying, " He was." An em- 
pire rises, flourishes, and crumbles ; and men 
look thoughtfully upon, the ruins, and say, " It 
was." Perhaps a sun, a central orb, with its 
circling worlds, is created : they shine on for a 
time, and go out in rayless midnight ; and angels 
say, " They were." But the name of our God is 
I Am, who inhabiteth eternity and the praises 
thereof ; the same yesterday, to-day, and forever. 



30 



THE EIGHT WAY. 



Throiigli the slow-moving cycles of endless dura- 
tion, he is still Jehovah, I Am, unwasting^un- 
changed ; the unspent fountain of all being, and 
the Father of time itself. 

" The Lord God." The leading idea expressed 
by the word " God," is strength, power, might. 
The power of God knows no bounds. The wide 
creation testifies his ability to form, sustain, and 
control. The same hand lights the glitter of the 
dew, kindles the stars, and hurls the lightnings 
of the skies. The same hand fashions the insect, 
and rolls suns and systems through their vast 
rounds. The goings forth of the same almighty 
power are heard in the sigh of the evening wind, 
the dash of the waterfall, and the hollow roar 
of the stormy ocean. The same hand protects 
the sparrow and the king, and overthrows atoms 
and empires. God is master of all his works. 
An irresistible grasp is upon every particle of 
matter, and an. all-controlling power hangs over 
every intelligence. Throughout the universe he 
reigns, and shall forever reign, over mind and 
matter, the evil and the good, over angels and 
devils. Well may we fall worshipping, and 
exclaim, — 

" Eternal Power, whose high abode 
Becomes the grandeur of a God." 

2. His moral attributes: "The Lord God, 
merciful and gracious." How well this descrip- 
tion agrees with the apostolic declaration, " God 



FIRST COMMANDMENT. 



31 



is love." He is merciful to the fallen, gracious 
to the helpless, long-suffering toward transgres- 
sors, abundant in goodness to his children, and 
true to all the promises given them ; keeping 
mercy for thousands who have no hope but in 
mercy ; and to the truly penitent forgiving in- 
iquity, transgression, and sin. How impressive 
this redoubling of terms! Here we have the 
strongest assurance that Jehovah is a benevolent 
Being, whose mercy flows for all, and whose 
loving-kindness passes not by even the worst of 
sinners. He ^repeats the idea, and varies the 
form of the expression in all possible ways, that 
the humblest, most desponding penitent, may 
know assuredly that God will pardon. How at- 
tractive this delineation of Him whose name is 
Eternal Strength, and who loves his creatures 
as a father loves his children ! 

3. But He " will by no means clear the guilty." 

He is a God of love and boundless mercy, but 
he is also a God of holiness. He has given man 
a holy law, and he will not suffer the wicked to 
go unpunished. He is a God of truth, and he 
will not suffer his own words of warning to fall 
to the ground. As the ruler of the universe, he 
will reward and punish, and execute his own just 
and holy law. The wages of sin is death ; and 
God has pledged his word that every labourer in 
the works of darkness shall receive the hire of 
which he is worthy. He will by no means clear 
the guilty, who trample upon his law and scorn 



32 



THE RIGHT WAY. 



his mercjj but will canse them to drink of the 
cup of trembling. 

Here, then, we behold, as in a glass, the Grod 
whom we are commanded to adore. Here is 
God, delineated hj himself, an eternal being, 
strong and mighty, full of love for all, but who 
hates sin, and will not clear the guilty. This is 
He who claims us as his own. This is the Maj- 
esty on high, who declares to each of his intelli- 
gent creatures, "I am the Lord thy God; thou 
shalt have no other gods before me." Holy art 
thou. Lord God Almighty ; heaven and earth are 
full of thy glory. 

H. "What this comma^tdment requires of its. 

I. It requires that we pay divine honours to 
none but God. 

Man is prone to bow down to what his eyes 
can behold, and his hands handle. Li ages 
gone by, many nations worshipped the hosts of 
heaven. When the morning sun came forth 
from his chamber in the ruddy east, men bowed 
themselves and worshipped. When the moon 
hung high her silver lamp in the evening blue, 
they did her homage. The starry host of heaven, 
too, were counted worthy of altars and sacrifices. 
Fancy peopled mountain and plain, lake and 
river, with imaginary deities, and bade man set 
up an altar "upon every high hill, and under 
every green tree." But God demands his right. 
He forbids this false worship, and all these vain 



FIRST COMMANDMENT. 



38 



imaginations, and says to all creatures capable 
of worship, "Thou shalt worsliip the Lor^ thy 
God, and him only shalt thou serve." 

2. This commandment requires that we openly 
acknowledge the God of revelation as the true 
God, and as our God. 

To lay aside the worship of the heavenly host, 
and of Jupiter, Osiris, and Brahma, is not enough. 
He who makes no profession of being a worship- 
per of Jehovah, violates this law every moment. 
The law saith to each of us, "I am the Lord thy 
God ;" and it demands an earnest, honest, prompt 
acknowledgment of the fact. It demands that 
every human being, who hears this word, shall 
at once become an avowed servant of God Most 
High. The multitudes of " moral " non-profes- 
sors of religion who abound in all Christian coun- 
tries, are transgressors by virtue of their omis- 
sions, and are as truly sinners as if they had bro- 
ken the command which saith, "Thou shalt not 
steal." 

3. This law demands that we receive God as 
he has revealed himself to us in his word. 

A Chinese mandarin inserted the name of Je- 
sus in his list of gods, and fancied that this made 
him a worshipper of Christ: but at the same 
time he knew not the character of Jesus, nor 
what was needful in order to be his follower. 
We must have a correct idea of the character of 
God, or else our worship cannot be acceptable. 
If an ignorant person should fancy that George 
2* 



34 



THE EIGHT WAT. 



"VTasliiiigtorL was a famous painter, and Benja- 
min i^est a great general, and Samuel Johnson 
a celebrated architect, his praise would not be 
of much value. He might pronounce the name 
correctly, and be very vehement in his expres- 
sions of admiration ; still, his ignorance of the 
real character of the one he lauded, would ren- 
der his praise false, and even ridiculous. Thus 
those who hear the name of God, and profess to 
honour him, but take no pains to learn his na- 
ture, may be found honouring that which has 
no existence except in their own imaginations. 
If, for example, in our conception of J ehovah, 
we fancy that he is so merciful that he will 
" clear the guilty," and will make the saint and 
the sinner, the penitent and the hard-hearted, 
alike happy, we are not admirers of his real 
character, but rather of an imaginary being, a 
mere fiction of our own. 

4. This law demands that we honour God, be- 
cause of his character. 

We should love him for his kindness, fear him 
for his hatred of sin, and reverence him for all 
his perfections. He is set forth as pure and holy, 
the lover of all good, the foe of all evil ; and if 
we wish him otherwise, we are not his worship- 
pers. If we wish any of his attributes changed, 
we have in our own fancies a god whom we love 
and admire more than we do the God of the 
Bible. Jehovah demands the first place in our 
hearts because he is what he is. He demands 



FIEST COMMANDMENT. 



35 



that we dwell with delight upon what he has 
revealed of his nature, and rejoice in all his at- 
tributes. 

5. We must yield him the service due Je- 
hovah. 

Excellence requires respect, infinite excellence 
demands adoration. We are under obligation 
to submit implicitly to God, to honour him above 
all else, and to love him with all our strength. 

If we love anything, animate or inanimate — ■ 
fame, pleasure, or wealth, friends, wife or hus- 
band, children or parents, or life itself — more than 
we love God, we are transgressors of the law. 
Everything else must be rendered subordinate 
to our duty to God, and our love to him be om' 
ruling passion, in life and in death. 

We must also fear our God more than we fear 
aught else. We must be ready to oppose public 
opinion, defy all human censure, defy all human 
passion, defy all human violence and rage, rather 
than offend our God. The ignorant devotee of 
Kome, who speaks with awe and reverence of 
his priest, while he profanes the name of God 
the Father, and God the Son ; who deems him- 
self accountable to his priest for his thoughts, 
words, and deeds ; who confesses his sins to him, 
and humbly sues for his pardon, and thus forgets 
his accountability to God in his accountability 
to man, has, to all intents and pui^oses, made 
his priest his god, and is an idolater. He who 
allows others to interpose their interpretation 



36 



THE EIGHT WAY. 



between his eyes and his Bible, and to thrust 
their intercessions and their authority between 
him and his God, will do well to remember the 
voice which spake on Sinai — am the Lord 
thy God : thou shalt have no other gods before 
me." 

We must also trust in God more than in aught 
besides, for the blessings which we need. For 
national good we must look more to God than 
to strong armies, wise statesmen, and just forms 
of government. For personal good we must 
trust more in God than in our good sense, cor- 
rect morals, industrious habits, influential friends, 
or good fortune. In fine, we should ever keep 
before us the declarations of his word — " Except 
the Lord build the house, they labour in vain 
that build it : except the Lord keep the city, the 
watchman waketh but in vain." 

This law demands a perfect sm-render of our- 
selves to God. Everything must be subordi- 
nated to him — our hopes and fears, our joys and 
sorrows, our plans of life, our property, and our 
powers of every kind, our very lives, all are to 
be laid upon the altar as our reasonable sacrifice, 
and the constant prayer of our adoring hearts be, 
" Thy kingdom come, thy will be done." Our 
affections must cling to God, our hopes centre in 
God, and our joys flow from God. Thus God 
shall be " all in all," possessing the heart, sway- 
ing the will, and fllling the soul with, "joy un- 
speakable and full of glory." 



FIRST COMMANDMENT. 



37 



CONCLUDING EEMAEKS. 

1. The reasons upon whicL. tMs great and all- 
compreliending command is based, are numer- 
ous, plain, and weighty. All legislation, divine 
or human, has an aim, a purpose. The obj ects 
to be secured by this law, are the rights of God, 
and the good of man. 

The principles of eternal justice demand that 
the creature reverence, obey, and love the Crea- 
tor. The first precept of the law accordingly sets 
forth the irrevocable determination of Jehovah 
to be the God, the only God of men, to sustain and 
control, to reward and punish, as their circum- 
stances require, or their lives merit. Whatever 
we may be, he is our God, to approve or con- 
demn, to reward or punish. To the obedient he 
is a God of love ; to the impenitent he is a con- 
suming fire. To govern man is God's right ; and 
this right he will vindicate with all the might 
of omnipotence. 

Again, the good of man requires a revelation 
of the Creator. His best interests require that 
he should be brought into communion with God. 
As the sculptor, by the study of correct models, 
attains the highest skill in his art ; as the painter, 
by the study of the forms and colours of natural 
objects, learns to make the canvass almost live ; 
so is man, by the contemplation of God, to learn 
wisdom, love, and holiness. The great Jehovah 
becomes the glorious model, according to which 



88 



THE EIOHT WAY. 



man is to fashion Ms character, and hj copying 
whicli, he is to be elevated, purified, and ennobled. 
In grasping the vast ideas divinely given, his 
mind enlarges : contemplating the love of God, 
his heart is attuned to pity and benevolence : 
adoring the holiness of God, he learns to hate 
sin, and love righteousness. Thus, by the knowl- 
edge of God, his nobler powers expand ; his 
thoughts, emotions, and aspirations, become lofty 
and spiritual ; he rises toward the throne of God, 
and begins to breathe the atmosphere of heaven. 

Heathenism, on the other hand, hides the true 
model from human eyes, and sets up in its place 
the blundering creations of polluted fancy, or 
the deformed example of this world's heroes, 
proud, selfish, revengeful, lustful, destitute of all 
real virtue, and sunk in every vice. Thus, in 
morals and in intellect, it drags men down. 
Thus, in the most effectual mode, it teaches them 
to be proud, lustful, malicious, and cruel, to copy 
the vices and the sins ascribed to the beings 
whom they ignorantly adore as gods. 

2. This commandment, fitly placed as the first 
of the law, lays deep and broad the foundation- 
stone of all religious obligation. If any man 
deliberately refuses to comply with this com- 
mand, he casts off the divine law, tramples upon 
God's authority, and assumes the attitude of open 
rebellion and bold defiance. 

3. This code of laws, made by an aU-wise 
Being, the author of nature, must be a perfect 



FIRST COMMANDMENT. 



89 



laW) perfectly adapted to the natture of the crea- 
ture to whom it is given, and suited to the cir- 
cumstances in which he is placed. Consequent- 
ly, to obey is not only man's duty, but his great- 
est wisdom and his highest interest. 

4. In this portraiture of Jehovah, given by 
himself, we behold the infinite power, majesty, 
purity, and goodness of Him whose we are ; and 
our conceptions even of these attributes, enable 
us to grasp only the lesser glories of his nature. 
Well may we exclaim, with the patriarch of Uz, 
" Lo, these are parts of his ways ! but how little 
a portion is heard of him ! The thunder of his 
power, who can understand ?" 

5. In this delineation of the great I Am, the 
Christian beholds his father and his friend. 
These infinite attributes are all pledged to his 
defence. God's wisdom guides him ; his strong 
arm protects him ; his love showers blessings 
upon him. A divine hand supplies his wants ; 
an eye that never closes looks down upon his 
daily steps-, and watches his midnight slumbers. 
The humblest follower of Christ can lift his eyes 
toward the throne of God, and say : " Thou shalt 
guide me with thy counsel, and afterward re- 
ceive me to glory." The humblest servant of 
God shall rejoice in his life, and triumph in his 
dying hour. And when the last great day shall 
come ; when the dead shall arise ; when the 
wicked shall be cast into heU, amid weeping, 
and wailing, and gnashing of teeth, the servant 



40 



THE EIGHT WAY. 



of God, witli a joyous countenance, shall look 
np upon the great white throne, and him that 
sitteth thereon, and shout, " Hallelujah, the Lord 
God omnipotent reigneth." 

6. In this description of Jehovah, the evil- 
doer may see Him whom his sins provoke. Every 
act of transgression tramples upon a holy law. 
Every act of rebellion levels a puny blow at an 
infinite God. Every sinner arrays himself against 
Omnipotence, and enters the lists with an adver- 
sary who can annihilate him as easily as man 
crushes a moth. Go where he will, the open eye 
of God beholds him, and the strong grasp of God 
is upon him. An arm, whose strength knows no 
decay, holds the sword of retribution over his 
head, and at its due season the mighty blow shall 
fall. 



SECOND COMMANDMENT. 41 
II. 

SECOND COMMANDMENT. 

THOU SHALT NOT MAKE UNTO THEE ANY GEAVEN IMAGE, OR ANY 
LIKENESS OF ANYTHING THAT IS IN HEAVEN ABOVE, OR THAT 
IS IN THE EARTH BENEATH, OR THAT IS IN THE WATER UNDER 
THE EARTH *. THOU SHALT NOT BOW DOWN THYSELF TO THEM, 
NOR SERVE THEM I FOR I THE LORD THY GOD AM A JEALOUS GOD, 
VISITING THE INIQUITY OF THE FATHERS UPON THE CHILDREN 
UNTO THE THIRD AND FOURTH GENERATION OF THEM THAT HATE 
ME ; AND SHOWING MERCY UNTO THOUSANDS OF THEM THAT LOVE 
ME, AND KEEP MY COMMANDMENTS. 

Idolatet has abounded in the world for ages. 
Yery soon after the deluge men became worship- 
pers of yisible things. Joshua thus addresses the 
Hebrews : " Your fathers dwelt on the other side 
of the flood, in old time, even Terah, the father 
of Abraham and of JN^ahor, and the j served other 
gods." The Jews have a traditionary story that 
Terah and his family were driven from Ur of the 
Chaldees, because of their refusing to worship 
the idols common among the people. There is 
no proof, however, that even Abraham worship- 
ped the true God till Jehovah revealed himself 
in Ur. Moreover, when Jacob visited Laban, 
one of the same family, he found them still idola- 
ters ; and when he departed, Rachel secreted her 
father's tera^him^ or images, which Laban styled 
his gods. 

Where idolatry began, or among whom, can- 



42 



THE EIGHT WAT. 



not now be ascertained with certainty, although 
learned writers have traced it, with some degree 
of probability, to the mixed multitude that fol- 
lowed Nimrod. It is almost certain that it be- 
gan with the attempt to commemorate, by sym- 
bols, events which had occurred in the history 
of the race. But soon the ideal was lost in the 
visible, and the multitude looked upon the images 
themselves as the reality. The fragments of 
truth once possessed were lost, or became dis- 
torted, and the mind thought little except of 
what the eye saw. 

Idolatry became almost universal, and spread 
through the most cultivated portions of the race. 
The scientific Egyptian, the acute Greek, the 
strong-minded Roman, as well as the more im- 
aginative nations of the East, owned its sway. 
Everywhere men turned from the spiritual to 
the material, and sought some visible object of 
worship. Some called the sun their God. They 
rose at the dawn to watch for his rising ; and as 
the approaching orb gilded the mountain-heights, 
and threw his level beams, like bars of gold, 
across the dewy valleys, they fell prostrate, and 
uttered words of adoration. Others, when the 
fair moon, walking in brightness, bore her silver 
lamp through her nightly circuit, stretched forth 
suppliant hands, and offered their prayer. 
Others, still, worshipped the starry hosts, each 
fancying that a particular planet ruled his 
destiny. Whole nations became more debased 



SECOND COMMANDMENT. 43 



than this. Thej worshipped the beasts of the 
field, the fowls of the air, the reptiles of the 
waters, as their gods. 

The false worship which began in the adora- 
tion of the works of Jehovah, ended in adoring 
the works of man. The artificer carved an 
image, a rude representation of something in the 
heavens above, or the earth beneath, or in the 
water under the earth, and built an altar before 
it, and did homage. At this moment idol-wor- 
ship prevails in two-thirds of the known world. 

The modes of idol-worship are various. The 
place, in primitive times, was a high hill, or a 
dense grove, where the foliage excluded the rajs 
of the sun, and twilight reigned at noondaj. 
Sometimes the priest chose a deep cavern, into 
whose chill, gloomj depths, he led his awed fol- 
lowers, and by the dim light of the sacred lamp 
performed his mysterious rites. But as men be- 
came fixed in their habitation, and cities began 
to rise, they began to erect temples in honour of 
their gods. These were often magnificent struc- 
tures, requiring the labour of thousands of work- 
men for many years, and exhausting the wealth 
of whole provinces. Art employed all its re- 
sources to render these edifices beautiful and im- 
posing. The temple of Minerva, at Athens, was 
constructed of marble of dazzling whiteness, and 
ornamented with sculpture wrought with the 
most exquisite skill. Eows of chiselled columns 
sustained the lofty roof, and upon the fi:-ont wall 



THE RIGHT WAY. 



marble figures, elaborately carved, represented 
the events of the goddess's fabled history. With- 
in this temple was a statue of Minerva herself, 
forty feet in height, from the skilful hand of 
Phidias, and declared to be his master-piece. 

The temple of Diana, at Ephesus, was ac- 
counted one of the seven wonders of the world. 
Its roof was supported by a hundred and twenty- 
seven columns, each the gift of a king. Within 
this splendid fane was enshrined an ivory statue, 
which the priests asserted had fallen from heaven. 
At Elis was the temple of the "Father of gods 
and men." Here a marble figure of Jupiter, 
sixty feet high, sat in grandeur upon a mag- 
nificent throne, holding in one hand a branch of 
cypress, and in the other the symbol of power. 
In Egypt, there may still be seen the ruins of 
temples, larger, and even more imposing, than 
those already mentioned. When the Spaniards 
invaded Mexico, three centuries ago, they found 
most magnificent structures, erected for the wor- 
ship of false gods, and enriched with untold 
quantities of gold and silver. Alas ! that the 
temples of the true God should ever lie desolate, 
while the heathen are thus lavish of their sub- 
stance. 

The ceremonials of heathen worship were va- 
rious. Processions to the temples were common, 
in which songs of praise were sung, and instru- 
ments of music were sounded. Sacrifice, too, 
was common, and almost universal. Sometimes 



SECOND COMMANDMENT. 



45 



there were merely garlands of flowers thrown 
upon the altar. Generally, however, beasts were 
slain, as in the Jewish worship, a lamb, a sheep, 
a bullock, or even a hecatomb, or a hundred 
oxen at once. Among some nations, human 
blood was not deemed too costly an offering. 
Enlightened Athens itself was accustomed to 
offer human sacrifice. Two persons were an- 
nually chosen, one of each sex, to "die for the 
sins of the people." The victims were led down 
to the sea-shore, in solemn procession, marching 
to the sound of music, and there burned upon a 
pyre of the wood of the fig-tree. "When the 
flame ceased to ascend, their ashes were collected 
and scattered in the sea. 

Li Mexico, human sacrifice was clothed with 
deep tragic interest. The youth, most beautiful 
in face and form, among the captives taken in 
war, was chosen as the victim. But instead of 
instant death, a whole year of joyous revelry and 
mirth was before him. In the eyes of the mul- 
titude he became sacred, the peculiar property 
of the gods, and their representative upon the 
earth. As he went through the broad avenues 
of the great city, the crowds fell prostrate, and 
rendered him divine honours. He was taught 
to delight in the charms of melody ; the nobles 
invited him to their feasts, and crowned his head 
with flowers ; and life passed as gaily as the 
gliding moments of some happy dream. 

But soon the short year was gone, and the 



46 



THE RIGHT WAY. 



fatal day came. He was led from his palace to 
the water-side ; and as he went, he threw from 
his brow the garland of flowers, and broke in 
pieces his instruments of mnsic. A barge con- 
veyed him across the lake to the gloomy temple 
of the idol. As he landed, the officiating priests, 
clothed in dark robes, seized him, and, stretch- 
ing him upon a block of stone, cut out his heart 
with a knife of flint, and threw it at the feet of 
the image of their fancied god. 

To describe the various forms and appliances 
of idol-worship wonld demand far more space 
than can here be devoted to the subject. The 
dark haunts of heathenism are full of the habita- 
tions of cruelty. Everywhere it is stamped with 
debasement, and stained with blood. Two- 
thirds of our race are still worshippers of images 
which their own hands have made. Heathen 
altars daily smoke with the gore of the innocent, 
poured out to beings which exist not, except in 
the wood or the stone, and in the darkened 
imaginations of the worshippers. We ourselves, 
who derive our race from the British Isles, and 
the continent adjacent, are the descendants of 
those who bowed before images, built altars to 
them, and shed thereon the blood of human 
victims. 

I. "What is forbidden m this commandment? 
No clearer answer, perhaps, can be given, 
than the one implied in a mere statement of the 



SECOND COMMANDMENT. 



47 



sin of tlie Israelites in Horeb. Moses had gone 
up into the mount to receive instruction respect- 
ing the new system of worship about to be estab- 
lished, and his people were anxiously watching 
for his return. Many eyes were continually 
directed towards the cloud-capped summit, to 
catch the fii'st ghmpse of the revered form of 
their leader, returning from God to guide them 
at once to the green hills and vales of the prom- 
ised land of rest. But day after day wore slowly 
on, and still he came not : and they finally said 
to Aaron, " Make us gods that shall go before 
us ; for, as for this Moses, we wot not what is 
become of him." Overcome by their importu- 
nity, Aaron made them a molten image, and 
" fashioned it with a graving tool." He built an 
altar before the idol, and proclaimed that on the 
morrow they would celebrate a feast by way of 
dedicating their workmanship to its designed 
office. Their object evidently was, not to set up 
a false god, but to make this image the repre- 
sentative of the great Jehovah, the medium by 
which to offer worship. This is proved by the 
statements given of the transaction. Aaron ap- 
points a feast of dedication, which should be, 
nevertheless, a feast to the Lord, or Jehovah. 
The name which he used is the new name which 
God had lately revealed to them, and which they 
never applied to any but the true God. And 
when the people saw the image, they said, 
"These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought 



48 



THE RIGHT WAT. 



thee up out of the land of Egypt." The verb 
to he is frequently employed in the sense of repre- 
sent. Joseph said to Pharaoh, " The seven ears 
are seven years." As he distributed to his dis- 
ciples the bread which he had broken, Christ 
said, " This is my body." 

From the facts recorded, it is evident that the 
Israelites regarded Moses as the representative 
of God ; that when he delayed his return from 
the mountain, the people felt at a loss for some 
visible medium of approach to God, and that 
the image was designed merely to fill the void 
created by the absence of Moses. This act, then, 
which God reprobated, and punished at once, is 
an exact illustration of the errors which the Se- 
cond Commandment is designed to prevent. The 
worship of all false gods is forbidden in the First 
Commandment : the Second, therefore, refers to 
improper modes of worshipping the true God. 
It condemns all images carved, or pictures 
painted, for purposes of worship ; and all at- 
tempts to make any visible thing the sacred re- 
presentative of the unseen Jehovah. 

n. The reasons upon which the prohibition 

APPEARS TO be BASED. 

1. All attempts to represent God by means of 
an image must of necessity fail. 

Form, size, colour, are not attributes of mind, 
but of matter : and an image is only some modi- 
fication of these attributes. But " God is a spirit," 



SECOND COMMANDMENT. 



49 



and " a spirit hatli not flesh and bones." If 
Jehovali, then, be an immaterial being, how can 
matter be so fashioned as to resemble him ? Can 
the cunning hand of the artist create the image 
of a human soul ? How then can the wood, the 
ivory, or the marble, be made like unto God, the 
eternal Spirit ? We can no more draw the pic- 
ture, or carve the form of a spirit, finite or in- 
finite, than we can chisel in marble the image 
of a thought, or grave in metal the figure of a 
sound, or paint on the canvass the colour of an 
echo. 

How conclusive against the use of idols is the 
argument of Moses, based upon this very princi- 
ple : " The Lord spake unto you out of the midst 
of the fire : ye heard the voice of the words, but 
saw no similitude." "Take ye good heed, lest 
ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven 
image, the similitude of any figure." " "We 
ought not to think," said the apostle to the idol- 
atrous Athenians, "that the Godhead is like 
unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art, and 
man's device." 

Matter, then, cannot be made the means of 
teaching the beholder correct ideas of God. Idols 
are termed " lies " by the sacred writers ; since, 
of necessity, they are not what they claim to be. 

2. Images would not only fail to convey cor- 
rect ideas of God, but would teach falsehood, 
and such falsehood as would tend directly to 
lower our ideas of the Supreme Being. 



60 



THE EIGHT WAY. 



When the sculptor undertakes to form the 
likeness of that which mortal eye never saw, he 
is at a loss : he is compelled to copy some fa- 
miliar object, or create some monstrosity, by 
uniting parts of visible things. "When man 
makes an attempt to fashion the likeness of Grod, 
he turns to the creature for his model. This is 
implied in the language of the command. He 
is forbidden to make the figure of " anything in 
the heavens above, or the earth beneath, or the 
water under the earth," to be employed to rep- 
resent Jehovah. When Aaron undertook the 
work, he fell at once into the course here con- 
demned. He collected the gold of which to 
make the image, and then the question occurred. 
What is God like? He could not answer the 
question. 'No form of Jehovah had ever been 
seen. He therefore made the image of a beast, 
" changed their glory into the similitude of an 
ox that eateth grass," and set up this degrading 
symbol of God as a medium of worship. 

And thus it has been wherever idols have 
been made. When man would make an image 
of his Creator he copies the creature. Almost 
every form in heaven, earth, or sea, has, at 
some time, been adopted to represent God. The 
statue of Jupiter, at Elis, was that of a venerable 
man, sitting in grandeur upon a throne. The 
Ephesian Diana was represented in the form of a 
woman. Beasts, birds, and insects, have also been 
copied for purposes of worship, or have them- 



SECOND COMMANDMENT. 



51 



selves been deemed symbols of God. Images 
bave been of all figm-es, and of all styles of 
■workmanship, from tbe breathing marble of 
Phidias to the misshapen clay of the native 
African. But all these various idols were be- 
held by the peasant and the child, as well as the 
philosopher. They became the books of the 
ignorant, from which they read the character of 
God, and from which they derived their impres- 
sions of his nature. But the ideas conveyed 
thus always fell infinitely short of the truth, and 
sometimes were utterly at variance with it. The 
figm^e of a man, however perfect in form and 
expression, can convey no loftier notion than 
of mere human strength, human goodness, and 
human passions. The image of a beast can 
only convey the idea of brute utility and brute 
propensities. 

Moreover, these idols of the heathen world are 
not only mere copies or caricatures of the crea- 
ture, but they are inferior to the creature whose 
form they wear. The marble Jupiter never 
opened his lips ; the golden lion never stirred a 
muscle ; and the silver eagle could not spread a 
feather. All was but matter, destitute of sense, 
and life, and motion. Idols, too, are exposed to 
many accidents, which cannot fail to lower them 
in the eyes of men. The statues of wood decay ; 
the noble forms of Phidias crumble in the flames 
which consume their temples, or, like Dagon be- 
fore the ark, fall from their pedestals and are 



62 



THE RIGHT WAY. 



shattered in pieces. A marble Apollo witli a 
broken leg, or a Yenus with her nose knocked 
off, would be illy qualified to inspire the wor- 
shipper with sentiments of awe and reverence. 
Man cannot feel much fear of that which his 
own skill has hewn ont, and his own hand must 
keep in repair. In illustration of this, we need 
but state the fact, that in some heathen lands 
the worshipper visits his idol with blows and 
stripes when he fancies that it is slow to answer 
his prayers. 

For the infinite J ehovah, therefore, to be rep- 
resented among men by an image of man's mak- 
ing would tend to lower our ideas of God. Images, 
consequently, would be inconsistent with the 
glory of God and the good of men. From the 
nature of the human mind, from the laws of the 
association of ideas, to make a statue, however 
noble or beautiful, the medium of our worship, 
would tend to destroy reverence, and weaken 
faith, and chill the pulsations of love. 

3. The worship of Jehovah, by means of an 
image, would tend to localize the idea of God. 

God's presence is everywhere. "When the 
lonely native of the frozen north bows in humble 
prayer, there in his hut of snow is the God whose 
presence is felt, at that very moment, in ten 
thousand Christian temples, scattered through 
lands thousands of miles distant. Amid the 
burning sands of the sohtary desert, in the wide 
silent forest, on the pathless ocean, there is God. 



SECOND COMMANDMENT. 



53 



"Wlien the gathered multitude send up the loud 
anthem of praise, God is there, comforting the 
sorrowing, strengthening the weak, an3 filling 
all hearts with gladness ; and, at the same in- 
stant, he is far awaj, in the lone chamber of 
the penitent, listening to the whispered suppH- 
cations of a broken heart. He stands near us 
in our daily employments ; and in all our ways 
he walks by om- side. In midnight gloom, as 
well as in. the blaze of noonday, he fixes his bm-n- 
ing eye upon us. Silent, unseen, unfelt, yet ever 
near, he sees, hears, knows, remembers all. 

But to make any material thing the medium 
of om* approach would cause om' ideas of God to 
cluster very closely round the image ; and the 
stronger the association of ideas, the stronger the 
tendency of the worshipper to narrow down the 
space filled by the divine presence. As he gazed 
upon the noble features of the marble face, he 
would say, "Sm-ely, here is God." But as he 
went his way, his thoughts would still turn back 
upon the sculpture, from which every step was 
bearing him away. The more vivid his impres- 
sion of the presence of God, when he stands be- 
fore the idol, the fainter the impression of His 
universal presence. Thus would the employ- 
ment of a material symbol of God tend to local- 
ize our ideas of Jehovah. 

4. This localization of our impressions of the 
divine presence would have an evil effect upon 
all classes of mind and character. 



54: 



THU RIGHT WAT. 



Its effects upon those not decidedly pious 
would be very bad. Tbe thought that Jehovah 
is everywhere, "beholding the evil and the 
good," tends to fill the soul with awe, and in the 
hour of temptation to save from sin. Consequent- 
ly that which lessens our impression of God's uni- 
versal presence, lessens the restraints which that 
impression is calculated to impose, and thus im- 
pairs the effects of a powerful auxiliary to virtue 
in the hour of trial. 

In the case of the truly sincere the results are 
not good. How readily does the honest but ig- 
norant worshipper of images fall into the impres- 
sion that the being worshipped is present there 
more than in any other place. How soon does 
his faith in the thing adored — in the painting 
or the statue — ^cause him to feel safer there than 
anywhere else. At the bombardment of Yera 
Cruz, during the late war, when the cannon of the 
north were levelling the defences of the city, and 
raining death upon it, the inhabitants, in their ter- 
ror, rushed to the churches, and fell down before 
the representations which they had been accus- 
tomed to adore. And thus it is in the history of 
all Catholic countries : when a hostile army as- 
saults the city, or when an earthquake causes the 
ground to heave like the surface of the stormy 
sea, the people fly to the churches, and prostrate 
themselves for protection before the pictures 
and statues. That they feel secure there, more 
than in other places, demonstrates the fact that 



SECOND COMMANDMENT. 



55 



their system of worship has localized, in their 
minds, the presence and the protective power 
of the being which they adore, whether it is 
Christ or some " saint." 

It was doubtless the working of the principle 
under discussion which led to the contrivance of 
amulets. A leathern heart, or a pewter cross, 
over which a few words have been mumbled by 
the priest, may be worn upon the person, and 
thus the protecting power will be always at 
hand. Thus a splinter of pine, duly certified by 
some unscrupulous deceiver to be a piece of the 
real cross of Christ, is deemed a sure defence in 
war, or pestilence, or shipwreck. 

That the localization of the sense of God's 
presence would have a demoralizing effect upon 
men in general, need not be argued in the ab- 
stract. Look at actual results. Enter a church 
which is decorated with effigies of Christ and 
the "saints," and mark the worshippers pros- 
trate before them. How devout the expression 
of each upturned face ! How reverential the eye, 
casting an imploring look toward the sacred 
doll-babies ! How fervently the lips utter the 
prescribed form of words ! Surely here is true 
devotion. Surely here are the budding saints 
whose toe nails shall be the amulets of genera- 
tions yet unborn. But, hold; wait till these 
seeming worshippers have gone their way. How 
soon the sanctity of the Sabbath is forgotten. 
See how they crowd to the place of amusement. 



56 



THE EIGHT WAY. 



Soon the noise of reckless mirth and revebj fills 
the air, mingled, perhaps, with the language of 
profanity, and drunken rage, and the sound of 
blows. Ah, the image is theii' Grod, and it is no 
longer present. They left it behind, closed in 
with walls and darkened with shnttei's. The 
saintly eye no longer looks out at them from the 
canvass with the piercing glance which the skil- 
ful artist gave it, and they are no longer moved 
by the vivid porti'aitm-e of suffering and love. 
The direct tendency of the whole system is to 
make them devout while they are bowed before 
the idol, and careless of their deeds when it is 
out of their sight. The priest may say that *God 
is everywhere ; but while they are instructed to 
adore the picture and the wafer, the stronger 
theii' impression of the divine presence in the 
bread and the paint, the feebler will be their 
sense of God's universal presence ; their worship 
and theii' religion will alike be confined to one 
spot, and that a decidedly small one. 

There is still another phase of the same error. 
The priest may thrust himself between man and 
heaven, claiming to be the representative of God, 
and declaring that sin must be confessed to him, 
and pardon sought at his hand, and he be made 
the sole medium of approach to God. Here, 
also, the effect is only evil continually. The 
priest, at the best, is only a man ; and he may 
be a capricious, ignorant, and weak-minded one. 
He may be cheated by sham confessions and pre- 



SECOND COMMANDMENT. 



57 



tended penitence, and his half-tanght dupes 
fancy that absolution is valid, no matter how it 
is obtained. Thus confession becomes a decep- 
tion, and absolution a farce ; and if the people 
are sufficiently credulous and ignorant to render 
the plan a safe one, the priest must pretend to 
know all things, in order to secui^e candour in 
his disciples. Thus absurd assumptions of office 
lead to absurd claims of power, and both priest 
and people rapidly grow worse under the opera- 
tion of a system which begins in stupendous pre- 
sumption, and ends in fraud and hj^ocrisy. 
Among a people taught to fear the priest, con- 
fess to him, and seek pardon from him, his power 
and influence may be great ; but he secures them 
only by seating himself upon the throne of the 
Almighty. He places himself where God ought 
to be in the mind of the worshipper, and centres 
upon himself those rehgious affections of which 
God is the only proper object. The priest is em- 
phatically the god of the ignorant Papist. The 
whole system is in direct violation of the spirit 
of the Second Commandment, and the evil re- 
sults follow from interposing a medium, instead 
of referring man directly to his God. 

5. The use of idols, or material figures designed 
to represent God, almost necessarily leads to the 
worship of many gods. Under the chisel of 
various sculptors, the image made to set forth 
the true Jehovah, would assume various forms, 
and the different forms would be designated by 

3* 



68 



THE BIGHT WAY. 



various names. A fabulous history would be 
invented to correspond with the figure, and thus 
it would end in bringing in the lowest, grossest 
heathenism. Human passions would be ascribed 
to gods wearing the human form ; the impure 
creations of debased imagination, the Jupiters, 
Thors, Bramhas, and Yenuses, of old, would again 
live in the minds and hearts of men, as a deadly 
leaven to turn all within into moral putrefaction. 
Thus an image of Jehovah would tend to create 
a multitude of imaginary objects of worship, and 
the truth would soon be buried in a mass of error 
and superstition. 

CONOLTJDING KEMAEKS. 

1. In all the rites of religion, we must be 
careful to distinguish between the material and 
the spiritual. 

Our great Teacher has warned us of our danger 
of confounding these. An instance of his care is 
seen in the directions given Israel with regard to 
the construction of altars. In those days 6f ig- 
norance and idolatry, an elaborately-carved altar 
might be regarded with superstitious reverence, 
and in time become an object of actual worship. 
Therefore God said: "An altar of earth shalt 
thou make unto me ;" and if thou wilt make 
me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of 
hewn stone." As they journeyed, they set up 
one altar after another, and left it behind as 
they moved on ; but He who fiUeth space was 



SECOJJD COMMANDMENT. 



59 



equally present at them all. Thus the people 
were kept from attaching too much importance 
to the mere instruments of religion. 

Public worship still has its outward forms and 
material instrumentalities, and there is a con- 
stant tendency to exalt these above their true 
position. To dedicate a house with form and 
ceremony may be very proper ; but the dedica- 
tion breathes no grace into the wood or stone of 
which it is built. A solemn procession around 
the plot of ground, with prayers and chanted 
sentences, imparts no grace to the sand or clay 
of a burial-place. JSTotwithstanding this "con- 
secration," it is no safer for the souls or bodies 
of those whose remains rest there, than are the 
surrounding fields. On the resurrection morn 
the voice of the archangel will reach the bones 
which lie unburied in the desert, or slumber in 
the ocean's dark caverns, and rouse them to life, 
as surely and as soon as if they had been laid in 
earth " consecrated " by a whole atmosphere of 
praying breath. 

It is said that when Moliere, the French dram- 
atist and actor, died, his friends desired to have 
his body laid in the Catholic cemetery. The 
rigid Papists remonstrated at the unlawful idea 
of burying a player in holy earth, and the ele- 
ments of a tumult were rapidly gathering, when 
the king interposed and sought to compromise 
the matter. "To what depth is your ground 
consecrated?" asked Louis. "Four feet," was 



60 



THE EIGHT WAY. 



the reply. " Well then," rejoined the Mng, " let 
him be buried six feet deep, and no law will be 
violated !" This httle anecdote, whether true or 
false, illustrates well the whole set of notions on 
the subject of " consecrated ground." 

2. In the sacraments, there is a possibility of 
our overlooMng the spiidt of the Second Com- 
mandment. 'No matter how Scriptural the pray- 
ers, or how simple the ceremonies, there is danger 
that the elements — the mere water, the bread, or 
the wine — should be looked upon as being more 
holy after the ceremony than before. "We might 
discuss the question, " What effect has the cere- 
mony of consecration upon the elements em- 
ployed ?" But there is a question which comes 
before this : " What Scriptural injunction have 
we for any form of consecration ?" When John 
baptized, we have no hint that he prayed over 
the waters of the Jordan. K it should be argued 
that he did, we might ask how often he repeat- 
ed the ceremony over the rapid floods ; or, how 
far his prayers reached up stream. When the 
eucharist was instituted, we read of no prayer 
of consecration whatever. Christ " gave thanks " 
unto Him who " bringeth forth bread out of the 
earth," but no prayer was offered for the ele- 
ments themselves that grace might be imparted 
to them, and thus flow to the souls of the dis- 
ciples. The only mode in which we can be 
spiritually strengthened by these things is by 
looking to Christ, and feeding on him in our 



SECOND COMMANDMENT. 



61 



hearts by faith, with thanksgiving." Preliminary 
prayers may be very appropriate and beneficial ; 
but when we talk of forms of consecration, we 
must beware lest we fall into superstition by at- 
taching to them a meaning and an efficacy for 
which inspiration gives no warrant. Let us be- 
ware, too, lest in our excessive scrupulousness in 
regard to the quantity of the water, and its mode 
of application, or in regard to the kind of bread 
and of wine, and the mode of their reception, 
we lose the spirit in the form, and fall into seri- 
ous error. 

3. The evils of image-worship tend to per- 
petuate themselves, and roll on in a widening 
and deepening stream of falsehood. From gen- 
eration to generation idols multiply, and supersti- 
tion becomes more and more false, vile, and pol- 
luting ; the true idea of God becomes more and 
more distorted ; the fear of his wrath, and the 
desire of his favour grow fainter still, and man 
sinks lower every moment. While the spiritual 
worship of God exalts, purifies, and ennobles man, 
the worship of images brings a cloud over his 
intellect, and causes him to decline in morals. 
Thus the iniquity of the fathers is visited upon 
their children, and passes on down to other gen- 
erations. This is in accordance with all the les- 
sons of history, as well as the declaration of the 
command which prohibits idols. 



62 



THE EIGHT WAT. 



nr. 

THIRD COMMANDMENT. 

THOU SHALT NOT TAKE THE NAME OF THE LORD THY GOD IN 
vain: FOR THE LORD WILL NOT HOLD HIM GUILTLESS THAT 
TAKKTH HIS NAME IN VAIN. 

Profanity is a very common sin ; and tlie prob- 
ability is that I now address some who are guilty 
of it. It has been a common sin ever since the 
fall — ever since wicked hearts and defiled tongues 
have been common. 

The heathen of old, like those of onr own day, 
were accustomed to pronounce the names of their 
gods irreverently in their ordinary conversation, 
and intermingled with mirth and laughter. And 
we find in the written and spoken language of 
many nations expressions that use sacred names 
disrespectfully. The worshippers of idols, indeed, 
seldom or never feel any real reverence for the 
ideal divinities which they adore. The inhabit- 
ants of India, when their gods have not answered 
their prayers for rain, will sometimes lash the 
image soundly, by way of bringing the careless 
or refractory deity to terms, and compelling him 
to attend to his duty. Where such proceedings 
as these are common, it would never be consid- 
ered wrong to drag in the name of the god to 
grace a jest, or corroborate unimportant asser- 
tions. 



THIED COMMANDMENT. 



68 



But the great God wlio came down on Sinai, 
beneath whose tonch the earth trembled, while 
fierce lightnings blazed, and thunder shook the 
mountains — this God demands our deepest rev- 
erence. He forbids all attempts to represent his 
form, lest, in the estimation of the beholder, the 
infinite Jehovah should be degraded to the level 
of the dumb statue. In the precept now before 
us, he demands that his name be recognised as 
a sacred thing, never to be bandied about by 
careless hps, nor interwoven with words of sin- 
ful passion. 

I. What is forbidden in the third command- 
ment? 

It may be remarked that legal oaths are not 
forbidden here. When appeal is made to the 
civil power, alleged facts are to be proved or 
disproved by testimony ; and property, reputa- 
tion, liberty, and life itself, are made to depend 
upon the truth of the witness. A false assertion 
may destroy the innocent as certainly as the 
dagger of the assassin. A false witness may 
subvert the ends of justice, and of government 
itself. He may strip the just man of all that 
makes Hfe desirable, and shut him up in a dun- 
geon, away from the light of heaven and from 
the faces of his friends, and cause his very name 
to become a reproach to his children when he 
has long lain in his dishonoured grave. For 
these reasons it has been customary among the 



64 



THE RIGHT WAY. 



nations styled Christian to require an oath of 
one who is about to give testimony. In defence 
of this custom I might urge various arguments, 
but two shall suffice. He who binds himself 
thus, merely recognises, in a formal and solemn 
manner, the fact of the existence and the moral 
government of a just and holy God, who hears 
the words spoken, and whose wrath burns against 
all false witness. It is evident, therefore, that 
the legal oath merely acknowledges the truth; 
and to do this in a solemn manner, and with sin- 
cerity, does not seem, of itself, unreasonable, or 
offensive to God. 

Again, this solemn reference to God is sanc- 
tioned by the Scripture : " TTiou shalt fea/r the 
Lord thy God^ cmd serve him^ and shalt swea/r 
ty his nameP Deut. vi, 13. The prophet, when 
his rapt vision was fixed upon the glorious age 
when all nations shall flock to the holy mountain, 
declares that then idols shall be forsaken, and 
'''he that swea/reth shall swear hy the God of 
truthP Is. Ixv, 16. And the Psalmist exclaims. 

Every one that sweareth by him shall glory." 
Ps. Ixiii, 11. These passages make it evident 
that, although needless, profane oaths are pro- 
hibited by the word which saith, '''Swear not at 
allf^ yet a solemn reference to the God of truth 
may, in certain cases, be lawful and right. 

The/brm of taking an oath is a matter of sec- 
ondary consideration, and it has varied at differ- 
ent times. He that calls God to witness that 



THIRD COMMANDMENT. 



65 



what lie says is true, is bound by oath. He has 
formally recognised the being of Him who is 
evjer present, hearing our words, seeing our mo- 
tives, marking all that is wrongs and approving 
the right. The elevation of the hand, the kiss- 
ing of the sacred volume, or of the crucifix, forms 
no essential part of the ceremony, nor does its 
omission affect the validity of the oath. 

Among the Jews, when a person confirmed 
his assertion by a voluntary oath, he elevated 
his right hand, and pronounced the words, ''As 
the Lordr li/oeth^ it is so.^^ Jer. xii, 16. When a 
legal oath was exacted, the words of the oath were 
repeated to the witness, and he replied, " JLmm, 
Amen or, " Thou hast scdd if^ 

That which is forbidden in this commandment 
is the irreverent use of the name of the great Je- 
hovah, — all irreverent allusions to him or his 
word, — all disrespectful language with reference 
to those things with which his name and his 
honour are connected. 

To be more definite, the commandment for- 
bids,- — 

1. False swearing. He that is guilty of de- 
liberate falsehood, when under oath, is guilty of 
a twofold sin. He lies, and then throws the lie 
in the face of Heaven. To tell an untruth in 
the presence of an honest man, who knows bet- 
ter, and then call upon him to bear witness in 
favour of the untruth, is an insult. But he who 
swears falsely thus insults, not man, but God. 



66 



THE RIGHT WAT. 



He laughs Jehovah to scorn, heaps contempt 
upon his authority, and defies him to his face. 
'Nor does the secret or open omission of any part 
of the usual ceremony in use in the administra- 
tion of legal oaths lessen the obhgation. The 
essential part of the oath consists in its appeal to 
God for the truth of what is said. 

2. This precept forbids all irreverent use of 
God's holy name in ordinary conversation. 

This sin, ordinarily termed profanity, is one of 
the most common sins of the day. It is a vice 
which may be found among all classes of society, 
though it makes its chosen abode with those who 
are weak in intellect, and foul in heart — those 
from whom reason and conscience have depart- 
ed and left nothing behind but the dregs of de- 
based nature — a repulsive compound of fool and 
devil. 

There are several distinct kinds of profanity. 

The prof cmity of passion. The merchant dis- 
covers that he has been cheated; the lawyer 
finds himself outwitted by his opponent; the 
mechanic hurts his fingers with his tools; the 
farmer has a horse that will not move at the 
word ; the boy knocks his ball over the fence ; 
and all, perhaps, swear at the annoyance. Men 
dispute, quarrel, and finally curse each other in 
furious passion. This is profanity in its most 
malignant form. They call upon the living God 
to crush their fellow-man. Simply because they 
are rendered angry by their brother, they call 



THIRD COMMANDMENT. 



67 



upon Heaven to shower eternal wrath upon him, 
and consign him to everlasting burnings. 

There is also the profanity of hahit. Curses 
and imprecations are generally first employed 
when the one using them is under the influence 
of strong passion. But, as the language grows 
famihar to their ears, swearers learn to curse on 
trifling provocation, when their passions are but 
slightly moved. After a time, they curse when 
they really mean no harm ; with a smile implore 
Heaven's vengeance upon even their friends, 
and playfully consign each other to eternal tor- 
ment. At last the words of cursing and profanity 
grow so familiar, and flow so glibly iBrom the 
tongue, that the speaker puts them in on all oc- 
casions, though they do not add the shadow of 
an idea to his meaning.' He swears when he is 
angry, swears when he is pleased, swears at his 
enemies, swears at his friends, swears at others, 
swears at himself, swears that what he said is 
true, and then swears that he was only j esting 
when he swore to it ; in short, he swears at all 
times, under all circumstances, and at all things, 
animate and inanimate, good, bad, and indifferent. 

The repetition of the oaths and mrses of others. 
When others profane the name of God, and we 
repeat the sinfal expressions needlessly, we re- 
peat the sin. K the language was originally 
profane, and we, for sport, repeat what was 
spoken in passion, we become nearly or quite as 
guilty as the author of the words quoted. 



68 



THE RIGHT WAY. 



TTie jprofcmity of astonishment. There are 
those who would shrink with horror from the 
very idea of cursing, who nevertheless bui'st out 
with profane exclamations at every petty occm-- 
rence which for a moment excites wonder in 
their childish minds. They fancy, it would seem, 
that the English language is too feeble to bear 
up their mighty ideas without resort being made 
to extraordinary expressions. The auditor, how- 
ever, is sometimes puzzled to discover any idea 
at all in their wonderments. Perhaps it would 
be just to call this the profanity of little minds. 

Profane allusions to God?s word. Occasion- 
ally we see a person who finds infinite stores of 
merriment in the punning application of the lan- 
guage of the Bible. Words referring to matters 
of infinite concern are dragged into a comical 
narrative, or interwoven in a keen retort. Thus 
the arrows of wit are tipped with Scripture, 
and the eternal truth which God has given man 
to pluck him from hell, and make him a son 
of the infinite Jehovah, and an heir of endless 
bliss, becomes the straw with which he is tickled 
into a roar of idiot laughter. 

It may not be out of place here to allude to 
incipient profanity — swearing in the bud. This 
is the use of words and expressions resembling 
the more open forms of profanity, and yet not 
the same. This is generally the apprenticeship 
of cursing, the work at which those employ them- 
selves who dare not yet swear bluntly. Some- 



THIRD COMMANDMENT. 



69 



times, however, this mode of speech is resorted 
to by habitual swearers of the worst stamp, when 
they happen to find themselves among decent 
people. Thej do not wish to talk in their nsual 
style ; for that would reveal their true character, 
and disgust the company. Yet the force of the 
habit is great ; every moment a curse rises to 
their Hps ; and lest the gap in the sentence should 
be too palpable, the hard words are choked down, 
and softer ones inserted, by way of compromise. 

These are a few of the various modes in which 
the Third Commandment is broken. All these 
things are denounced by the divine law. 

n. Reasons for the law against profanity. 

1. The needless, thoughtless, unmeaning use 
of the name of God betrays a want of reverence 
for God himself. 

Consider the majesty of Jehovah. Look at 
Sinai, when the law was given to men. See the 
lightnings — ^hear the thunders that echo along 
the trembling earth. Behold the cloud that 
" goeth up as the smoke of a furnace." Lo ! God 
is here, and these are the tokens of his presence. 
Shall mortal man, the creature, whom sin has 
defaced, and rendered a trembhng culprit at the 
bar of this awful Deity — shall he speak with 
thoughtless lips of Him whose hand fashioned 
him? Ascend to heaven: see seraphim and 
cherubim, and all the bright host, bowing in 
lowly adoration before the eternal throne. See 



YO 



THE EIGHT WAT. 



the blood-washed throng, and hearken to their 
song. Listen to the hymns of angel choirs. 

All the conrts of hght are filled with adoring 
praise and deepest reverence. And shall man, 
the fallen and the guilty, drag the holy name of 
God into his angry contentions, or his mirth ? 
Range through creation : see worlds on worlds, 
myriads that no man can number, rolling their 
harmonious rounds. Shall the name of Him 
whose word kindled space with their myriad 
fires be bandied about from tongue to tongue by 
guilty men ? •Shall his name become a byword 
in the mouth of worms of the dust, whose breath 
is in their nostrils, and whom the next moment 
may bring down to the grave, and to the bar of 
eternal judgment? When we contemplate the 
hohness, the power, and the majesty of God, 
and the feebleness and dependence of man, we 
see the sin of profanity in its true light. 

2. This sin is rendered greater by the fact that 
there is little temptation to commit it. The 
Psalmist prays they may " be ashamed who sin 
without cause." The doctrine has been advanced 
that all righteousness consists in disinterested 
love, and that all sin consists in selfishness. But 
in the case before us, it is difficult to imagine 
any motive for the sin. The words of cursing 
are not honey to the mouth, nor music to the 
ear, nor joy to any of the senses. JSTor can we 
see very clearly that it is calculated to give 
pleasure to even a heart filled with all evil. It 



THIRD COMMANDMENT. 



71 



seems to be committed without any motive that 
the swearer is willing to confess, even to himself. 
Hence the aggravation of the sin. The thief 
pleads his necessities ; the drunkard tells of his 
raging thirst ; the sensnahst talks of the force of 
passion : but the profane man appeals to none 
of these ; he confesses that he serves the devil 
without wages — does his work gratis. 

3. The sin, too, is an irrational sin ; so utterly 
absurd, so absolutely foohsh, that it has nevep 
yet had a serious apologist. Almost every other 
vice has found vicious men, however weak, who 
undertook to defend it ; but no one, saint or sin- 
ner, civihzed or barbarous, has yet come forth 
as the champion of profane swearing. 'No one 
has attempted to prove it sensible, respectable, 
or necessary. Even infidels condemn it. Paine, 
with all his malignity against Christianity, gives 
his opinion that " he who will swear will also 
lie." The behever in revelation cannot consist- 
ently indulge in profane language, for God con- 
demns it : the deist cannot, for he acknowledges 
the being of a God, whom men ought to rever- 
ence : nor can the atheist, for he has nothing 
to swear by in his creed. No one defends it ; 
no one apologizes for it. It is a sin which every- 
body repudiates — a houseless, homeless, friend- 
less child of perdition. 

Permit a remark with regard to Paine's 
observation. It is true that when we hear an 
assertion, not at all improbable in itself, backed 



72 



THE EIGHT WAT. 



witli a profane oath, we begin to be suspicions. 
Let ns suppose a case. "We hear a stranger 
make a statement, and nnless we are deterred 
hj its obvious improbability, we are inclined to 
receive it as the truth. But he offers a profane 
oath in proof, and we now begin to reason. 
Can this man be accustomed to have his state- 
ments credited upon his bare word ? If he is, 
whj does he now swear to the truth of what he 
asserts ? K he is not, will it be safe for us to be- 
lieve him ? Thus his oath is naturallj and logi- 
cally construed into a confession that his mere 
word does not pass for proof of what he says. 
Thus a man's profanity is a loud witness of his 
shame. 

4. The moral effect of profanity upon the 
swearer himself is very bad. 

Man has strong passions, and strong tempta- 
tions beset his path. He needs every help that 
he can obtain to enable him to maintain his in- 
tegrity, and m-ge him on in the path of virtue. 

But in the hour of trial the fear of God is the 
greatest support, and the surest safeguard. The 
thought that Jehovah has given us a holy law, 
and is now fixing a piercing eye upon us, behold- 
ing the evil and the good — this dread thought 
must have weight with all whose consciences are 
not hopelessly seared. But the profane man 
accustoms himself to trifle with the name of God ; 
and his profanity tends to destroy the fear of 
God in his own soul. The name of the Maker 



THIRD COMMANDMENT. 



73 



of all things, the Judge of all men, has become 
to him a sound that has no meaning. He pro- 
nounces it in his sport, as well as in his passion, 
and every such mention of the holy name tends 
to practical atheism — the horrible state of those 
who are " without hope, and without God in the 
world 'no God to fear, no God to love or 
trust. 

How can so wicked and irrational a practice 
fail to work evil results upon the moral character ? 
If we regard not God, will we regard man ? If 
we make a byword of that which is infinitely 
great and holy, will we respect anything? K 
we are daring enough to trample on God's law, 
what wiU we care for man? Profanity is the 
parent of many other sins. He who can swear 
without scruple, can generally do anything 
without scruple. Regard for a higher power 
than man is the basis of all reliable virtue; 
and he that has learned to treat the Deity 
with contempt, has cut himself loose from his 
moorings, and he floats away upon the ocean 
of life, a wretched moral wreck, wafted here 
and there at the mercy of the tide of cor- 
ruption, and blown about by every wind of 
passion. This is the natural result of profanity, 
and it is easy to point out the living proofs of its 
effects. 

5. Profanity not only tends to destroy the 
swearer's own reverence for aU that is holy, but 
it also demoralizes others. 



THE EIGHT WAY. 



Profanitj is a plague that infects the air, and 
spreads bj contact. The swearer's sin is not 
secret. He sins not only in midnight darkness, 
and in secret dens of evil, but in the broad day. 
He transgresses everywhere — when he sits down, 
and when he rises up, and when he walks by the 
way. Every swearer is exerting an influence to 
spread profanity. We are naturally imitators 
of each other, and especially prone to adopt the 
language which is continually falling upon our 
hearing. The profane man makes curses famihar 
to the ears of the public, and thus becomes the 
apostle of profanity, the preacher, not of righte- 
ousness, as was ISToah, but of sin. His words are 
heard by those who are pure from the vice, and 
they become infected. Incipient swearers hsten, 
and learn new forms of blasphemy, and new com*- 
age in wickedness. His curses, too, reach the 
ears of innocent children, and they go home re- 
peating the strange words. 

A common swearer is a public nuisance. "We 
have seen, by the example of France, that a free 
government cannot exist among a people void of 
virtue. It must have a solid foundation in pub- 
lic morality, or it is a tower built on a quick- 
sand. But the example and the influence of the 
common swearer go to teach irreverence for God, 
and thus to corrupt the young, and undermine 
public morals. His profanity has a direct and 
a powerful tendency to strip the legal oath of its 
sanctity, and thus to hinder the administration 



THIRD COMMANDMENT. 



75 



of civil justice. Thus it is evident that commoii 
swearing is an offence against society. 

For this reason, the laws of the land condemn 
profanity, and treat the man guilty of it as a 
criminal. The law is founded in justice. Gov- 
ernment is bound to protect thv^ community, and 
the community has a right to appeal to the law 
for protection against the man whose language 
corrupts the youth, afflicts the sensible well-dis- 
posed citizen, and subverts all good. Nor does 
this law interfere with freedom of opinion, or in- 
fringe the rights of conscience. 'No man pro- 
fanes the name of God, as a matter of conscience. 
No one has a right to invade the rights of others 
by corrupting their children, or to pain the 
minds of peaceful citizens by needless blasphemy. 
The language of the profane man is as offensive 
to the soul. the atmosphere of stench which 
smTounds carrion is to the sense, and the civil 
authorities do well to purify the air of both. 

INFERENCES. 

1. Christians should not only feel, but mani- 
fest, reverence for the name of God. Never, on 
any account, should they pronounce it except 
seriously, and with the deepest awe. The J ews 
had so great veneration for the name by which 
He that led them up out of Egypt had revealed 
himself, the name Jehovah " I Am," that they 
never pronounced it, even m their daily devo- 
tions, but substituted another word signifying 



THE RIGHT WAY. 



Zord or Master, They considered it not law- 
ful to utter the sacred syllables, even in reading 
the Scripture. While the Christian rejects their 
superstitious scruples, let him imitate their rev- 
erential awe. Let the Christian parent also 
teach his children to revere the name of God. 
Let him watch narrowly the words which his 
children learn abroad, and repeat at home. Pro- 
fanity, like many other sins, though liable to at- 
tain giant growth, nevertheless may easily be 
nipped in the bud by parental reproof and 
parental example. 

2. Let those addicted to this vice repent and 
reform. Why should you cultivate a habit which 
is neither honourable nor profitable, which brings 
no pleasure, works no good, but " only evil, and 
that continually?" Why should you disgust 
every sensible man within the reach of your 
voice ? Why violate the laws of your country ? 
Why spread moral pestilence and death around 
you? Why seek to corrupt the youthful part 
of the community by teaching them to cast off 
the fear of God ? Why corrupt the children of 
your neighbours, by leading them to imitate you ? 

Above all, why should you "heap up wrath 
against the day of wrath ?" Hear the word of 
God : " The Lord will not hold him guiltless 
that taketh his name in vain." Every profane 
word is heard in heaven. Every curse is stored 
up, waiting for the day of wrath. Why sin for 
naught? Every curse will return upon your 



THIRD COMMANDMENT. 77 

own head. The God who came down on Sinai 
will soon again be revealed from heaven in flam- 
ing fire, taking vengeance on all his adversaries. 
Why dash yourself heedlessly against the point 
of the sword ? You gain nothing by your sin ; 
you are in danger of losing everything. Repent 
soon, now. Delay will destroy you, and that 
without remedy. Repent before the dread hour, 
when "he that is filthy" must remain "filthy 
still," forever. 

3. Let those who are beginning to form the 
evil habit, stop at once. Would you be a notori- 
ous, shameless swearer ? If not, stop now. Bad 
habits naturally grow worse ; and this is no ex- 
ception to the general rule ? Why should you 
sin against God ? Why will you undermine your 
own virtue? He who gives himself up to this 
vice will find that it brings with it seven other 
nnclean spirits. It is invariably joined to a gen- 
eral lack of virtue. 

Another motive might be mentioned. Why 
disgrace yourself in the eyes of all respectable 
people ? The great Washington once said : " 'No 
gentleman will be a habitual swearer." Why 
degrade yourself before the community ? Why 
sell your reputation, your virtue, and your soul 
so cheap ? 

4. Let those who are free from the vice, bless 
God that they have escaped this foolish, dis- 
graceful, ruinous habit. Let them guard against 
it continually ; for it abounds on every side, and 



78 



TFE RIGHT WAY. 



" hecause of swewring the land mournethP Let 
every man, too, exert himself to spread pm-e lan- 
guage. Let every man recollect the precept: 
" Thou shalt in cmy wise reprove thy neighbour^ 
and not suffer sin upon himP Li fine, let all 
remember, that ''^for every idle word that men 
shall speak^ they shall give account thereof at the 
day of judgment^ Death stands at the door, 
and eternity, with its terrors, or its joys, is 
but a step off. Soon our everlasting state will 
be fixed beyond the power of recall or amend- 
ment. 



FOUBTH COMMANDMENT. 79 



TV. 

EOURTH COMMANDMENT. 

REMEMBER THE SABBATH-DAY TO KEEP IT HOLY. SIX DAYS SHALT 
THOU LABOUR, AND DO ALL THY WORK : BUT THE SEVENTH DAY 
IS THE SABBATH OF THE LORD THY GOD : IN IT THOU SHALT NOT 
DO ANY "WORK, THOU, NOR THY SON, NOR THY DAUGHTER, THY 
MAN-SERVANT, NOR THY MAID-SERVANT, NOR THY CATTLE, NOR 
THY STRANGER THAT IS WITHIN THY GATES : FOR IN SIX DAYS 
THE LORD MADE HEAVEN AND EARTH, THE SEA AND ALL THAT IN 
THEM IS, AND RESTED THE SEVENTH DAY : WHEREFORE THE LORD 
BLESSED THE SABBATH-DAY, AND HALLOWED IT. 

How sweet to the pious soul is the day of rest. 
How soothing to the troubled spirit are the quiet 
of the blest morning, the songs of the birds, the 
echoes of the Sabbath-bell, the still sunshine, the 
universal repose, the Sabbath of nature. How 
this day speaks to us of the " rest that remaineth 
for the people of God." 

The term " Sabbath" means kest. Our bless- 
ed Lord declares that the rest-day is made for 
man. It is a regulation which has its foundation 
in the necessities of man's nature and destiny. 
It was instituted at the creation. " God Messed 
the s&venth dcuy and hallowed itP To hallow is 
to set apart for sacred uses. Thus the seventh 
day that dawned upon the new world was de- 
voted to the worship of the Builder of all. The 
mode of computing time, previous to the deluge, 
shows that the Sabbath was then observed. God 



80 



THE RIGHT WAY. 



said to IS^oah : " Yet seven da/t/s, cmd I will cause 
it to Touin 'wpon the earthP And when the deluge 
had swept over the lands, ISToah sent forth a dove, 
which, finding no rest, returned to the ark. Koah 
" stayed other seven days^^ and again sent forth 
the dove. After the flood, and before the law 
was given on Sinai, Jacob ^''fulfilled his week^'' 
and Joseph, at the threshing-floor of Atad, " made 
a mourning for his father seven daysP ISTow a 
year is measured by the seasons ; a month was 
measured by the waxing and waning of the 
moon; "the evening and the morning" bound 
the day. But a week is not thus determined by 
the motions of the heavenly bodies. Why then 
should this mode of computing time have ex- 
isted ever since the creation, and among all the 
principal nations of the earth? How can we 
account for these things, except on the supposi- 
tion that God established it at the beginning by 
enjoining the observance of the day of rest? 
We may take it for granted, then, that the Sab- 
bath has always existed from the time when the 
first Sabbath-morn dawned upon Eden, waking 
to hallowed joy a world unstained by sin. un- 
dimmed by sorrow. We may take it for granted 
that the day of rest shall be observed till the toils 
of time are over, and the weary sons of earth 
shall have found that " rest which remainethfor 
the people of GodP 

But when ought we to observe the day of rest ? 
The Israelites kept it from sunset to sunset, on 



FOrRTH COMMANDMENT. 81 

the ground that " the emning cmd the morning 
the daily period of darkness and of light, " were 
the first dayP There was another reason for the 
adoption of this mode of measuring the day. 
They were not in possession of modern time- 
pieces ; and if they had measured the day from 
midnight to midnight, how could they tell pre- 
cisely when the Sabbath began or ended? A 
conscientious man, at times pressed with his busi- 
ness affairs, and yet determined not to encroach 
upon the sacred hours, would have been at a 
loss to know to what precise moment his toils 
might lawfully be pursued, and at what precise 
moment they might be resumed. The setting 
of the sun furnished the means of defining the 
time with a good degree of exactness. The 
lengthening shadows warned busy man of the 
approaching season of rest ; and when the glow- 
ing orb sank into the sea, the twilight deepened 
over a whole nation, and all knew that the Sab- 
bath was begun. 

And yet this mode of dividing sacred from 
common time was not wholly free from defect. 
The sun sets upon a busy world, while men are 
in the midst of their toils, and absorbed in mind 
with worldly thoughts and plans. The setting 
of the Sabbath sun, too, left man at liberty to 
resume his secular labours. Consequently there 
would be a constant tendency to collision between 
earthly toils and Sabbath duties ; and where the 
hands were kept from transgression, the mind 
4* 



82 



THE BIGHT WAY. 



and the heart might forget the day of rest. The 
transition from the secular to the sacred hour 
would be so abrupt, so sudden, that many would 
be unable to lay aside their business, and enter 
upon Sabbath employments in the right spirit. 
The invention of candles and lamps increased 
the difficulty, which, to tell the truth, might not 
have been very great when man retired to his 
couch at twilight, and his morning songs were 
as early as the dawn, joining in the morning 
carols of the birds. 

But the invention of clocks enables us to mark 
the lapse of time during the darkness as well as 
the light, and we are consequently enabled to place 
the dividing line more advantageously. And as 
the spirit and the letter of the command are alike 
adhered to in the present division of time, we 
are justifiable in keeping the Sabbath sacred 
from midnight to midnight. In this way, one 
entire interval between the seasons of repose is 
devoted to rest and holy employment. The 
claims of the Sabbath do not interpose in the 
midst of activity ; nor are any tempted to watch 
for the setting sun, saying impatiently, as they 
long for the moment that takes off the restraint, 
" When will the Sabbath he gone^ that we ma/y set 
forth wheat P When man opens his eyes upon 
the Sabbath morn, he knows that the day is holy, 
and that every moment, till he shall again close 
them in his customary repose at night, ought to 
be devoted to the Lord. The concerns of this 



FOUKTH COMMANDMENT. 



83 



world are left behind ; his mind has been unbent 
from his business ; his vexations, and perplexities, 
and passions, are all softened down, and the Sab- 
bath morning finds him calm in mind and in- 
vigorated in body. 

Another, and a more important question is, 
"Which day is the Sabbath?" One thing is 
evident — the whole world cannot keep the same 
day. When the sun is rising upon the eastern 
coast of America, it is noon in Italy, sunset 
in China, and midnight at the Sandwich Islands. 
If a vessel leaves port, and sails directly east, 
it sails away from sunset all day, and towards 
the sunrise aU night, and consequently its days 
are shorter than the days at the port which 
it left. If the vessel circumnavigates the globe, 
by sailing east, when it arrives at the point of 
departure, the mariners will have gained one 
day in their reckoning, and it will be Tuesday 
on board the ship and Monday on the shore. 
While the shore may have seen the sun rise and 
set fom- hundred times, the sailor has witnessed 
the same thing four hundred cmd one times du- 
ring his voyage. If the vessel sails west, in- 
stead of east, the motion of the ship tends to in- 
crease the length of the days, and on their re- 
turn, it will be Sunday on the ship, and Monday 
on the shore. For these reasons, those who make 
voyages of this description are accustomed to 
correct their reckoning in the middle of their 
voyage, by counting the same day of the month 



84 



THE RIGHT WAY. 



and of tlie week twice, if their course is eastward ; 
and, if westward, by leaping over one day of the 
montli and of the week. Suppose, for instance, 
two vessels sail from New-York, and, passing 
in opposite directions, meet in the China Sea, 
their reckoning will differ by one day. Tuesday, 
the 13th of February, of the one bound west- 
ward, will be Wednesday, February 14, to the 
other. If they just exchange their reckoning, — • 
the Orient, by calling two successive days Wed- 
nesday, February 14 ; the Occident, by passing 
over a day, calling one day, Tuesday, February 
13, and the next day, Thursday, February 15, — 
they will both be right when they arrive at 
home, as regards both the day of the week and 
the day of the month. 

'Now, who does not see by this very plain illus- 
tration, that all men cannot keep the same day? 
and that in cases frequently occurring in the 
commercial world, the weeks are exposed to oc- 
casional variations ? Who does not see the nar- 
rowness of view exhibited by those who write 
ponderous volumes, and spend years of labour, 
in the defence of keeping the day of rest upon 
the last day of the week instead of the first ? The 
law demands that we regularly devote one day 
in seven to sacred purposes ; but whether we call 
that day the first or the last, is of little moment. 

It is very important, however, that a commu- 
nity all keep the same day. If Christian societies 
differ in this respect, the Sabbath of each will 



FOURTH COMMANDMENT. 



85 



be disturbed hj the secular operations of the 
others ; and the business, as well as the religions 
affairs of both, will not be conducted without 
annoying interferences. The moral influence of 
the Sabbath will, in a great measure, be lost 
upon the unformed minds of the young. The 
gay and the sordid will find pious people engaged 
in worldly avocations upon every day of the 
seven, and they will treat the whole matter as 
one of mere speculative character. Thus, while 
the Church may be disputing over their conflict- 
ing reckoning, the community has no Sabbath 
at all. 

We conclude, therefore, that the right way is 
for all to observe the day which the general con- 
sent of the community, or the law of the land, 
recognises as the sabbath. 

Taking it for granted, then, that the sincere 
inquirer after the path of duty has fixed upon 
the time to be deemed sacred, the question then 
arises. How ought the day to be kept ? 

The fourth precept of the law demands that 
it be "remembered," or commemorated, and that 
no secular labour shall be performed during the 
appointed period. Let us inquire into the true 
intent and meaning of the commandment. 

I. "What is forbidden therein? 
1. ''In it thou shalt not do any worhP 
This prohibits toil for the sake of gain or of 
pleasure ; labour that may be dispensed with, at 



86 



THE EIGHT WAY. 



least for the time ; all labour to wMch avarice 
prompts, or of which selfishness is the governing 
motive. ITecessary works are not forbidden. 
It is lawful to heal the sick, and clothe the 
naked, and feed the hungry. It is lawful to per- 
form deeds of mercy to suffeiing humanity. It 
is lawfal, too, to care for the domestic animals, 
to loose the ox from his stalls and lead him 
away to watering^'' or to " lift him up out of the 
ditch^^ into which he has fallen. In a word, it 
forbids no work, the omission of which would 
argue cruelty or hardness of heart. 

It must be observed, however, that in order 
that a given work upon the Sabbath may be law- 
ful, it must not only be merciful or necessary in 
itself, but there must be a reason for om^ doing 
it then. If the love of gain causes us to defer 
till the Sabbath the things which we ought to 
have performed during the other six days, we 
may violate the spirit of the law even in our 
deeds of mercy. 

2. "Thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy 
son, nor thy daughter^ 

Here we perceive that the law enjoins addi- 
tional duties upon heads of families. Parents are 
not only to refrain from assigning labours to the 
children upon the holy day, but they are to teach 
them, by precept and example, to reverence the 
Sabbath. Parents are made, to what extent cir- 
cumstances must determine, responsible for the 
observance of the law by their household. One 



FOURTH COMMANDMENT. 



87 



thing is clear, every raaster of a house shonld 
see that the Sabbath is remembered there. Care 
should indeed be taken to render the sacred 
hours as pleasant as possible, consistently with 
their sanctity. Employments of various kinds 
should engage the attention of the younger por- 
tions of the family, so that duty may be, if pos- 
sible, rendered tolerable even to the least serious 
and thoughtful. But if a son or a daughter is 
rebellious, and rises in opposition to the law of 
God and the wishes of the parent, that parent is 
bound to sustain the law. 

3. " Thy man-servant " and " thy maidrser- 
voAif shall not labour. 

Slaves were quite numerous among the Jews, 
as well as other nations, and at that time they 
were treated by the Gentiles generally with much 
rigour. God here speaks in their behalf, and in- 
terposes his authority between the bondman and 
his owner. The master might be cruel and ava- 
ricious ; he might hurry on his weary slave dur- 
ing the six days of labour ; but when the sixth 
day's sun had set, God speaks, and for a time 
the bondman rested from his toils. By divine 
right he claimed the day of rest as his own. 
Doubtless many a weary, overtasked labourer, 
as he ceased from his work a moment to steal a 
glance at the sinking sun, and the lengthening 
shadows of the sixth day, offered a silent but 
earnest thanksgiving to the benevolent Giver of 
rest. 



88 



THE EIGHT WAY. 



But the law makes it the duty of the head of 
every household to see that those employed 
therein abstain from unnecessary work, volun- 
tary as well as stipulated. He is made respon- 
sible for at least their outward observance of the 
sacred day. 

4. 'Nor shall " thy cattle " labor. 

Our God is good, and " his tender mercies a/re 
over all his worTtsP The Israelites were divinely 
taught to be kind to the brute creation. They 
were forbidden to "seethe a kid in his mother's 
milk and even those seeking the nests of birds 
were prohibited from seizing both the nest and 
the old birds. One must suffice. The same 
thoughtful benevolence interposes in behalf of 
the domestic animals. God ^^carethfor oxenP 
The beast that trampled out the grain was not 
to be muzzled ; and when the days of toil were 
past, the Sabbath sun rose upon the earth, bring- 
ing sweet rest to him as well as his driver. "Well 
would it be for man and beast, in these modem 
times, and in our own land of gospel Hght, if this 
merciful law were better observed ; if the tired 
horse that has panted under the lash during the 
days of labour should no longer be compelled to 
drag the giddy and the godless on Sabbath-dese- 
crating jaunts of pleasure. 

5. IS^or shall the day of rest be forgotten by 
" the stranger that is within thy gatesP 

Strangers visiting the land of Israel were re- 
quired to cease from labour on the Sabbath. 



FOURTH COMMANDMENT. 



89 



Those wlio are sojourning with, ns for a time 
should not disturb the order of the family by 
interfering with our Sabbath observances. Yis- 
iters, whether new acquaintances or old friends, 
when their visit includes the day of rest, should 
feel that courtesy, to say nothing of religious 
principle, demands that they respect the pious 
convictions and customs of those by whom they 
are entertained. And, if the thoughtless or un- 
principled guest forgets propriety, his entertainer 
is not violating the laws of hospitality if he should 
administer a gentle hint, or, if needed, even a 
stern reproof. God demands it at his hand. 

n. "What is eequtred by the commandment ? 

'''"Remember the Sahhath-day to Tceep it KolyP 
The word here rendered "remember," means 
more than simply to keep in mind. It signifies 
to commemorate, to celebrate, to distinguish by 
proper observances. The Sabbath was not de- 
signed to be a day of mere muscular repose, a 
period of mental stagnation, of lounging, drowsy, 
yawning idleness. It is a day set apart for the 
consideration of things divine, and for devotion. 
He who fancies that rest from labour is the great 
object of the sacred day, has not yet acquired 
half the idea. He would degrade it into a mere 
contrivance to enable man to do more secular 
work, and lay up greater gain. It is admitted 
that the observance of the day of rest has a good 
effect upon man in respect to his temporal wel- 



90 



THE EIGHT WAT. 



fare ; but this is merely incidental. Another, 
and an infinitely more important object, is his 
spiritual good. The Sabbath is a barrier which 
God has erected against the spirit of the world, 
the ark in which the Christian surmounts the 
deluge of earthly cares, the weekly feast-day 
when those who " hunger and thirst after right- 
eousness'''' receive the bread of life, and water 
from 'Hhe wells of salvation^^ and are made 
" strong in the LordP 

1. To be more definite, it is a day set apart for 
jpuhlic worship. 

To the Israelites the Sabbath was a "day of 
holy convocation." The sacrifices at the taber- 
nacle, and subsequently in the temple, were more 
numerous, and greater multitudes joined in the 
worship. From the time of the return from 
Babylon, synagogues were erected in the cities 
and towns, and there, every Sabbath, portions 
of the sacred books were read, and public prayers 
offered. The Sabbath is still a day of holy con- 
vocation. For eighteen centuries the Christian 
Sabbath has been observed. The Sabbath sun 
has never set on a single day but that some- 
where, either in the lofty temple or in the hum- 
ble cottage — perhaps in some secluded valley, 
or in some dim cave — the followers of Jesus have 
gathered together, the prayer of faith has gone 
upward to the throne of God, and the blessings 
of Heaven have descended upon the worship- 
pers. To do this is the duty of the people of 



FOTJETH COMMANDMENT. 



91 



God. They are still commanded not to forsake 
tlie assembling of themselves together. 

2. Besides public worship, there are employ- 
ments which partake of the natm-e of works of 
benevolence and acts of worship. Snch is the 
Sabbath-school. Its exercises are partly devo- 
tional — ^the Bible is read, songs of praise ascend, 
and prayer is offered; and at the same time 
the pnre words of God are tanght to the assem- 
bled youth. Many of these receive no religious 
instruction at home. Here are the children of 
the godless and the dissolute, as well as others. 
Here are the children of the stranger, and it is 
well to care for their souls. Here, too, are or- 
phan childi^en, who were perhaps commended to 
the Father of the fatherless in the last feeble, 
dying sigh of a pious parent ; and God heard 
in heaven, his dwelling-place, and is answering 
that prayer in the faithful instructions, and the 
fervent love of the devoted Sabbath-school 
teacher. To engage in this work is an act of the 
purest, deepest, noblest mercy. 

3. A part of the day should be given to private 
devotion. God's holy word should be read and 
studied, and a portion of time should be spent 
in prayer, and in meditation on heavenly things. 
Thus the sacred hours should be devoted to God ; 
and when the evening shades draw near, and 
the Sabbath hastes to its close, we shall be mor- 
ally better than before — more spiritual, more 
heavenly-minded, more like our Master. And 



92 



THE EIGHT WAY. 



thus, instead of deploring the loss of a day, with 
the Koman emperor, we will feel that we have 
gained one : yea, more, have " laid hold on eter- 
nal lifeP A Sabbath thus spent will warm our 
hearts, strengthen our hopes, and build us up in 
our most holy faith. A Sabbath thus spent will 
leave us farther on our upward way, " quite on 
the verge of heaven and as the quiet evening 
draws near, and the western sky flames with the 
ruddy beams of the setting sun, so will our men- 
tal sky catch new radiance from the Sun of right- 
eousness, and glow with the reflected Hght of 
the upper world. 

4. I had intended to show the rational evi- 
dence in favour of the divine law of the Sabbath ; 
but as this part of the subject is frequently dis- 
cussed, and as some other matters connected 
with it have been discussed at considerable length, 
I shall pass these proofs with a mere hint at a 
few of them. 

(1.) God demands one day in the seven 
as peculiarly his ; and that which he demands 
is his right^ and it is right and wise for us to 
obey. 

(2.) The religious beneflts of the Sabbath are 
great in the experience of the true Christian. 
During one day in seven he is freed from the 
cares of business and the fatigue of toil, and the 
concerns of his nobler nature occupy his atten- 
tion in their stead. The Sabbath repairs the 
spiritual waste of the week, and prepares him to 



FOURTH COMMANDMENT. 



93 



engage in his celestial warfare with new courage 
and vigour. 

(3.) The moral effect of the Sabbath upon the 
community is very great. The preaching of the 
gospel keeps the great principles of virtue and 
religion fresh in the minds of the multitudes. 
The morals which it inculcates are pure, and 
thus correct ideas of truth, honour, benevolence, 
justice — all those virtues which bind society to- 
gether in the bonds of brotherhood — are sown in 
every heart. The faithful ministration of God's 
truth spreads a purifying influence far beyond 
the circle of the membership of the Church. 

(4.) The regular preaching of the gospel has 
a beneficial effect upon the intellect of the com- 
munity. Every able minister of God's word is 
directly and effectively engaged in educating his 
people. The habit of listening once, twice, or 
thrice a week, to a discourse carefully prepared 
and fraught with clear statement, vivid descrip- 
tion, valid argument, and it may be with strong 
appeal, beautiful imagery, and fervid eloquence, 
must train the intellect, while it purifies the 
heart. A Church-going community is superior 
to others, not only in morals, but in mental 
vigour — ^in cultivated taste, breadth of view, and 
in general information. The exhibition of men- 
tal power which they behold every week, wakes 
mind to action, and creates an activity which 
pushes its inquiries, and collects its treasures on 
all sides, far beyond the circle of thought where 



94 



THE RIGHT WAY. 



it acquired its strength. Here is one great rea- 
son why a Protestant community is so much 
superior to the people of Papal countries, where 
a sermon is seldom or never heard. 

(5.) The effect of the Sabbath upon the social 
affections is good. "With all its varied employ- 
ments arising from religious duty, the Sabbath 
is still a season of leisure, and the various mem- 
bers of a family generally enjoy more of each 
other's society than at other times. The merchant 
does not huiTy away to his counting house, nor 
the lawyer to his office, nor the mechanic to his 
shop ; nor do the children spend the day in 
school. The family circle is less broken by ab- 
sences. The father has more time to converse 
with his children, and, consequently, has a better 
opportunity to note the development of their 
mental and moral character, and to cultivate 
their friendship. Thus the blessed day of rest 
brings parents and children, brothers and sisters, 
into close union, and sheds around an influence 
as refreshing as the dew of Hermon, and as 
grateful as the winds that breathe through the 
groves of spices. 

(6.) Its temporal advantages are great. To 
overtasked minds, and weary bodies, rest is a 
necessity of nature. The man doomed or lured 
to unremitting toil, sooner or later suffers the 
ill effects. Abused nature will rebel at the con- 
tempt cast upon her laws. Facts, numerous and 
not to be mistaken, demonstrate that the alter- 



FOTJETH COMMANDMENT. 



95 



nation of six days of labour and one of rest is as 
philosophical as it is Scriptural. Whether the 
labour be that of the muscles or of the mind, a 
man can do more, and do it in better style, by 
working six days, and then resting on the Sab- 
bath, than by toiling during the whole seven. 
The labouring beasts, too, the horse and the ox, 
are the longer lived, and able to do more work 
by the observance of this law. The day of rest 
is demanded by nature, as well as revelation ; 
and all experience testifies that the Sabbath was 
indeed " made for man." 

In conclusion, we will glance at a few of the 
more common modes in which this law is broken 
among us. 

1. The Fourth Commandment is disregarded 
by the general post-office department. In Eng- 
land, the transportation of the mails on the day 
of rest has long since ceased. Our own national 
legislature has been petitioned upon the subject; 
but, thus far, the laws of the land have not been 
made to agree with the laws of God. In the 
cities and large towns the post-office is open; 
and on the great mail-routes the travel is kept 
up. Weary man, and weary beast, must still 
toil on — and all along the railway the public 
worship of God is disturbed by the thunder of 
the trains and the piercing shriek of the steam- 
engine. Multitudes of agents, clerks, firemen, 
and porters, must be in attendance, and to them 



96 



THE RIGHT WAY. 



there is no Sabbath, no day of rest, no day to be 
spent in the family circle, in the courts of the 
Lord, and in employments befitting the holy 
horn's. All is business, noise, and bnstle, as 
at other times ; and a large body of men are 
reduced to this alternative — either to give up 
their situations, or give up the Sabbath. This 
is an alternative which no man, no corporation, 
has a right to present to any person, however 
exalted, or however humble. 

2. Another evil akin to this may be seen in 
the running of steam-boats and passenger-trains 
upon the Sabbath. These are frequently em- 
ployed, during the summer months, in making 
" Sunday excursions " between some large city 
and the smaller towns and villages adjacent 
thereto. Multitudes of passengers are tempted 
to turn aside from the house of God, and spend 
a few hours in the country. Here they waste 
the day in a search after pleasure. Some will 
hang around the village-tavern, drinking, smok- 
ing and perhaps rioting ; others roam through the 
neighbouring fields, robbing birds'-nests, or 
stealing fruit, whose owner is at church with his 
family ; others still gather into ten-pin alleys, 
and other places of lawless amusement ; and the 
whole day passes without a serious thought, without 
the name of God being once mentioned, except 
profanely. Many of those who thus spend the 
holy day are the sons of pious parents, who know 
not what their children are doing, and who per- 



FOTJETH COMMANDMENT. 



97 



haps fancy that their sons are in the house of 
God all this while. This sin exists to an alarm- 
ing extent; insomuch, that the serious portion 
of the inhabitants of the villages visited feel it 
to be not only a nuisance, not only repugnant to 
all right feeling, but desti'uctive to the order and 
morals of the villages, which are exposed to these 
godless inroads. 

The sin shines out with a broader glare, from 
the fact that the stock in the companies whose 
cars and vessels are thus employed in sin, is, in 
pai-t, owned by professed Chi-istians. While 
they are in the house of God, their property is 
used to convey Sabbath-breakers from place to 
place, and thus gain a few dollars for the owners. 
K the sin is committed with their consent, they 
are guilty of trampling on the laws of God, for 
mere gain. K the affairs of the corporation are 
managed by unscrupulous men, then the con- 
scientious stockholder must settle this question, 
How far he can receive the wages of sin, and be 
guiltless ? 

3. The Fourth Commandment is totally per- 
verted by those who would count the hallowed 
aay of rest a mere holiday. This is the error of 
Popish countries. In Mexico, and other Catholic 
lands, the common custom is to resort first to the 
church, and then to the place of amusement. 
Mass in the morning, a bull-fight in the after- 
noon, and a dance in the evening, form the usual 
order of exercises — and the ignorant people see 

5 



98 



THE RIGHT WAY. 



no conflict in these discordant employments. In 
some of the cities in our own land, where Popery 
sways the mass of the people, the parades of the 
military are held during the day, and the theatres 
are open and thronged in the evening, and thns 
the Sabbath becomes the weekly carnival, a time 
for mirth and revelry. In other parts of our 
country the community are not yet gone so far 
astray ; still there is danger, the indications of 
which are so plain that every thoughtful, ob- 
servant eye, has noted them. Immigration is 
pouring in upon us a deluge of people who come 
from lands where the Sabbath is known only as 
a day set apart for amusement and soulless joys, 
and careless leisure. Little by little the dese- 
cration of the Sabbath is stealing in upon us. It 
is true the theatres are not yet opened Sabbath 
evening ; but " concerts of sacred music," and 
"moral lectures" of various kinds, are not un- 
known. These are the beginnings of downward 
progress — the dark shadow which approaching 
evil, of a still deeper dye, casts before it. It wiU 
be wise for us to take warning in time. 

4. To some the Sabbath is a day of mere rest, 
and they seem to fancy that it was instituted for 
the body alone, the soul having no lot in the 
matter. These rise very late on Sunday morn- 
ing, as if they had disagreeable anticipations of 
tedious hours to come. The forenoon is passed 
in drowsy indolence, which tends to no benefit, 
and brings no enjoyment. The Sabbath-bell in- 



FOURTH COMMANDMENT. 



99 



vites them to the house of God, but its sole effect 
is to induce them to crawl to the window, and 
gaze with sleepy eyes upon the passing throng. 
Perhaps, by the middle of the afternoon, they 
are dressed for Sunday, and they saunter out to 
make a call, if they have anywhere to go. They 
may look into the church in the evening; perhaps 
stay long enough to learn that, to their taste at 
least, sermons are dull affairs, and then return 
home to rest their wearied frames from the toils 
of the day. 

Sometimes Sabbath-breakers of this class have 
the honour of including in their ranks a few pro- 
fessors of religion. These say that they would 
rejoice if they could be more active, but really 
they are so weary when the Sabbath comes that 
they must rest. But if you inquire how they 
became so weary, you will find, in most cases, 
that they have worn themselves out in the service 
of the god of this world. They are madly pur- 
suing riches, and to this object they have de- 
voted all their strength. The Sabbath to them 
is void of spiritual blessings, because they have 
so wearied themselves in the chase after this 
world's goods that they are unfitted for spiritual 
exercises and employments. Thus the great de- 
sign of the law is lost sight of, and they become 
violators of the holy law. 

5. It would be a vain task to attempt to enu- 
merate all the multiplied modes in which the 
Sabbath is desecrated. Some spend the day in 



100 



THE EIGHT WAT. 



social visits, or in entertaining their friends witli 
profuse hospitality. Others read the newspapers, 
or some worthless novel. Others still devote the 
hallowed season to the posting of their accounts. 
And now and then the eye of Jehovah glances 
down upon one who observes the day outwardly, 
while the secret recesses of his heart are filled 
with worldly thoughts ; who sits in the house of 
God with solemn face, planning schemes for 
making money, and even on his knees, in seem- 
ing prayer, reviews his gains, and ponders over 
new projects for speculation. 

CONCLUDING REMARKS. 

1. The Sabbath being " made for man," being 
based upon his moral, intellectual, and physical 
nature, and therefore conducive to his present 
and future good, it should be kept by all, in the 
letter and in the spirit. 

2. Christians should set a good example. The 
more decent modes of sinning should be avoided, 
as well as the grosser ones ; and all the people 
of God should count the holy Sabbath their de- 
light, as the blessed day of closer, sweeter com- 
munion with God, and with his children. 

3. Every good citizen should set his face 
against legalized desecrations of the hallowed 
day by public conveyances and public houses. 
All should be willing to lend their name and in- 
fluence, in all lawful and Christian ways, to cause 
these sins to cease. 



FOUKTH COMMANDMENT. 



101 



4. Let those who love God carefully devote 
the day to holy duties and holy employments. 
Let us count the Sabbath "honourable," and 
make it tell upon our eternal interests, treas- 
uring up its moments as if they were golden 
sands. 

5. Let all remember that Sabbath-breaking is 
the entering-wedge of all evil. It frequently, I 
may say generally, introduces other sins : prodi- 
gality, bad company, dissipation, lead on from 
vice to vice, till ruin, temporal and eternal, closes 
the scene. 



102 



THE BIGHT WAY. 



Y. 

FIFTH COMMANDMENT. 

HONOUR THY FATHER AOT) THY MOTHER : THAT THY DAYS MAY BE 
LONG UPON THE LAND WHICH THE LORD THY GOD GIVETH THEE. 

How beautiful a sight is a family where love and 
harmony reign, where sweet peace dwells, and 
each member of the httle circle hves and labours 
to enhance the happiness of the rest ! In such a 
home as this smile answers smile, and heart 
beats responsive to heart. Here there is no de- 
ception, no hypocrisy, none of the empty phrases 
of fashionable comphment, and the unmeaning, 
pohshed smile of mere poHteness, as bright as 
the sunbeam that gilds the bosom of the frozen 
lake, but, alas, as cold as the ice upon which it 
glitters. Here all is real and true ; and the hol- 
low show which good breeding teaches is super- 
seded by the confidence of kindred souls. 

That HOME may exist. God has taken it under 
his peculiar care. " He setteth the soHtary in 
famihes." He first speaks to husbands and wives, 
commanding them to regard each other with all- 
enduring affection. He then turns to the chil- 
dren of the family, and gives them an exhorta- 
tion, to which he adds an implied promise of 
great significance : " Honour thy father and thy 
mother: that thy days may be long upon the 



FIFTH COMMANDMENT. 103 



land which the Lord thj God giveth thee." Let 
us notice, first, "What this commandment teaches ; 
and, second, The reasons npon which it is based. 

1. "What the Fifth Commandment teaches. 

1. It teaches children to reverence their parents. 
The word " honour," employed in the law, is very 
expressive. The leading idea which it conveys 
is respect, or reverence. The precept then de- 
mands that children shonld revere their father 
and mother in their hearts. Their inmost 
thoughts should be imbued with reverence for 
those who gave them being. 

This inward respect should manifest itself in 
word and action. The titles by which children 
address their parents, the tone of the voice, the 
expression of the countenance, and all the num- 
berless, indescribable modes in which the deep 
sentiments of the soul find their way to the sur- 
face, should bear witness that the parent is re- 
vered. Demeanour in the domestic circle need 
not be cold and formal in order that honour 
may be given where honour is due. All that 
we have alluded to is perfectly consistent with 
easy, unconstrained maimers, and conversational 
freedom. 

The child should speak respectfully, if he 
speaks at all, of his parents to others. If they 
sustain an exalted position in the popular estima- 
tion, he ought to be the last to question their ex- 
cellence, or detract from their good name. K 



104: 



THE EiaHT WAT. 



the parents have defects, or even vices, the child 
should be the last to publish, like Ham, the son 
of Koah, the story of their shame. K the tongue 
of reproach fastens upon the parent, the child is 
bound to defend, if truth permit, the character 
of the assailed one ; if truth forbids defence, he 
is bound to show by silence, or retiring from the 
place, that even the wrong-doing of the father 
has not destroyed fihal affection in the son. This 
love should rise superior to the ills of hfe. Even 
in the cell of the condemned, the fallen parent 
should know that his children have not forgot- 
ten him. Even in the deep degradation of the 
drunkard's fate, the besotted parent should feel 
that his children are ready to brave the world's 
frown in his behalf, and that they still call him 
father. 

2. This law demands that children love as well 
as respect their parents. The reverence that has 
been described must be based upon affection. 
Without this it would be but mockery. Desti- 
tute of real affection, outward respect can no 
more make the parents happy than they can 
warm their chilled forms by a painted flame. 
Where warm affection presides over the scene, 
home becomes as Eden, where rich fruits load 
the trees, and fragrant flowers bloom on every 
side. But where cold, exact civility, and formal 
respect are all, then it is as the plants of the 
artist. Fruits of wax hang upon rootless boughs, 
and flowers of dry, scentless paper, stand motion- 



FIFTH COMMANDMENT. 106 

less upon lifeless wires. To render the duties 
of children pleasant to them, as well as satisfac- 
tory to their parents, warm affection must ever 
glow in the heart. This love should be uniform 
amid the changing scenes of life. Sometimes 
children are placed in more advantageous cir- 
cumstances than the parent, and thus, in wealth, 
education, and position in society, they may ex- 
cel him. But this grants no release from duty. 
The well-informed son or daughter who can speak 
sneeringly of the ignorance and rustic manners 
of the parents whose industry and economy gave 
the educational advantages in which he or she 
takes so much pride, adds the basest ingratitude 
to injury and insult, and is an unworthy partaker 
of the benefits conferred. K the child has be- 
come a child of God, while the parents remain 
" in the bond of iniquity," true piety will dictate 
a most tender, careful observance of filial duties, 
that they may be won to Christ, by witnessing 
the effect of religion on the conduct of their son 
or their daughter. The law utters its command 
without making those exceptions to which in- 
gratitude and disobedience would be continually 
appealing ; it tells children to " Honour their 
father and their mother," whoever or whatever 
they may be. The parent may have physical, 
mental, or even moral defects ; yet duty is the 
same. They may be rendered peevish by dis- 
ease or misfortune ; yet the law says : " Honour 
thy father and thy mother." They may be wii- 

5>K 



106 



THE RIGHT WAY. 



ful, weak in mind, and unreasonable ; still the 
law remains the same, and love should be fer- 
vent, active, and unceasing. 

3. This reverence and love must produce dbe- 
dience. 

" Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for 
this is right." ThQ child should submit to be 
guided by the will of the parents, and should 
acknowledge them as the rulers of the house- 
hold. Obedience must have its origin, not 
in good nature simply, nor in caprice, but in 
settled principle ; otherwise it will not be uniform. 
The command of the parents must be law to the 
child, and his feelings and inclinations, when 
coming in collision with his known duty, must be 
sacrificed without hesitation, and without regret. 
This obedience must be prompted and sustained 
by affection. K the child indeed yields, but un- 
willingly, sticking at every requirement, like a 
miser making a bargain — if he seeks to escape 
all he can, or if he yields sullenly, and obeys 
outwardly while the heart rebels, the spirit of 
the command is disregarded. ITo affectionate 
parent can be satisfied with such service as a 
slave might yield. The cheerful obedience which 
rejoices to have an opportunity to manifest grate- 
ful love alone meets the requirements of the law. 

It is right, however, to state that, although the 
command of the parent is law, there is a higher 
law. When the parent would compel the child 
tx) commit sin, obedience becomes sin. In all 



FIFTH COMMANDMENT. 



107 



cases when human and divine laws conflict, we 
are to " obey God rather than man." But cau- 
tion is necessary. He who feels that he ought 
to decline to obey, should be sure that the sinful- 
ness of the requirement, and not his want of in- 
clination, prompts his refusal. 

4. This reverence, affection, and obedience are 
due loth parents. 

To shut out the possibility of error, our divine 
Teacher mentions both the father and the mother. 
In other passages God has placed the husband 
at the head of the household ; and some might 
infer from this that a simple direction to obey 
parents referred to the fathers alone, and imposed 
no obligation to obey the mother ; but here they 
are both specified. Other declarations of duty, 
full as explicit, might be cited. " The eye that 
mocketh at his father, or despiseth to obey his 
mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it 
out, and the young eagles shall eat it." " Cursed 
be he that setteth light by his father and his 
mother." Both are to be revered, tenderly loved, 
and obeyed, in the Lord, with alacrity and a will- 
ing heart. 

5. These duties are binding as long as we Tiame 
a parent. 

The precept does not refer merely to infancy, 
or childhood, or youth. A man is not set free 
by arriving at legal manhood ; nor can the lapse 
of any number of years lessen his obligations to 
honour his parents. Though the son should be 



108 



THE EIGHT WAY. 



in his strength, and the father be a feeble old 
man, his frame bowed, his eyes dim, and his 
thin locks gray with age — though memory should 
be false to him, and reason no longer be reliable, 
yet the voice of God speaks, saying, "Honour 
thy father." Though the mother that bore thee 
be no longer the active, strong-minded one that 
pressed thee in her arms in the days of thy guile- 
less infancy, and watched, with a mother's anx- 
ious eyes, thy youthful, wayward steps — though 
the winter of age has stolen away the bloom of 
spring, yet she is thy sure friend still ; a part of 
the hfe which she has lost, thou thyself hast in- 
herited, and her dim eye looks to thee for pro- 
tection, and her trembling hands are stretched 
out to thee for a strong arm on which to lean in 
her weakness. " Honour thy mother." Love and 
reverence, while they remain on earth, and ten- 
derly cherish their memory when they are gone. 
So shall their old age be comforted, their last 
expiring sigh shall breathe blessings on thy head, 
and thy filial sorrow for them not be embittered 
by remorse and self-reproach. 

n. The reasons foe this law. 

1. The good of the household demands the 
establishment of a controlling, directing power. 

God has made man a social being, and where 
there is society there must be government. A 
family circle, consisting of parents, children, and 
it may be other inmates of the house, forms a little 



FIFTH COMMANDMENT. 



109 



community. Yarious labours are performed, vari- 
ous employments are prosecuted, and there needs 
be a directing mind to plan and secure order. 
Those engaged in these things are of various 
mental and moral character, and wisdom is re- 
quired to assign each a proper field. Moreover, 
those gathered beneath the same roof are the 
children of fallen man, and inclination will come 
in conflict with inclination, self-will with self- 
will, and passion with passion, and there needs 
be a strong hand to repress violence, and a wise 
mind to soothe all into harmony. Without a 
helm, and a firm hand to grasp it, the ship drifts 
at the mercy of the winds and the waves, till it 
dashes upon the rocks. "Without a commander, 
the army is rendered powerless by a thousand 
conflicting plans, and falls an easy prey to the 
enemy. And without an acknowledged head, 
the family is rent by discord and conflict, and 
home, no longer home, becomes the abode of 
anarchy and confusion. The well-being of pa- 
rents and children demands that the power of 
diretition and government be lodged somewhere, 
and that some hand be found to grasp the mild 
sceptre of domestic rule. 

2. The headship, or government of the family, 
naturally belongs to the parents. 

Their age and experience entitle them to pre- 
eminence, and the relation which they sustain 
points to them as the proper persons to rule the 
little empire. They are charged with the main- 



110 



THE RIGHT WAY. 



tenance of the household, and all pecuniary re- 
sponsibility rests upon them. They are bound to 
their children, too, by the strong affection which 
God has implanted in the parental breast. If 
prosperity casts its cheering light around their 
dwelling, they rejoice in its brightness, but not 
so much for themselves as for their children. K 
evil enters their loved circle, they are ready to 
bare their own bosoms to its sharp arrows, that 
their children may be spared. Every faculty of 
their souls, every power of their minds, is put 
forth to secure the welfare of their offspring. 
Their own happiness is bound up with the hap- 
piness of their sons and daughters, and their own 
hearts vibrate to every touch which brings joy 
or sorrow upon those in whom their affections 
and their hopes are centered. "Who, then, but 
the parents should guide the affairs of the httle 
realm ? To whom should the direction be com- 
mitted but to those whom nature herself has 
placed at the head of the family ? 

3. Youth needs a guardian and a counsellor. 

Infancy and childhood, indeed, must be ruled 
by an absolute government, else, from sheer ig- 
norance and weakness, they rush into destruc- 
tion. But as years glide on, and reason gathers 
strength, a faithful friend, who will unravel error, 
and reveal truth, and curb passion, is still indis- 
pensable. In later as well as early years the 
judgment is Kable to be led astray by impulse 
and passion ; but the young are involved in 



FIFTH COMMANDMENT. 



Ill 



greater peril from this source. In youth the 
world stands forth clad in hues of brilliancy and 
beanty ; but fancy lends much of the light, and 
a susceptible heart magnifies every excellence. 
Like the obj ects seen by an inflamed eye, all things 
are surrounded by a halo of tinted rays — but the 
rainbow is in the mental sky, and not the mate- 
rial one. That which should be highly prized, 
and eagerly sought, appears repulsive ; and ob- 
jects, from which wisdom would fly as from the 
plague, seem exceeding desirable. To the youth- 
ful gaze courses of life seem replete with joy, 
where in reality there is naught but disaster. 
Here and there a path opens apparently to an- 
other Eden ; but the clearer vision of experience 
sees it to be the way of death: serpents hiss 
along its borders ; the red eye of the beast of 
prey glares dimly from the neighboring jungle ; 
and among the cool retreats, and from the blos- 
soming trees, there floats a pestiferous breath as 
deadly as that of the upas. Surrounded by the 
allurements of sin, and the false light of error, 
to whom shall youth look for counsel, if not to 
the parents ? "Where will youth be likely to find 
honesty and faithful affection, joined to experi- 
ence, if not in them ? Their reason has been ex- 
ercised many years in the things of life, and 
strong love for their offspring prompts them to 
seek their good. Parents, then, and not stran- 
gers, are, by the allotment of nature herself, the 
guardians, friends, and advisers of children. 



112 



THE EIGHT WAY. 



Hence the wisdom of the precept, "Honour thy 
father and thy mother." God is here providing 
for the well-being of the whole family by ap- 
pointing the parents rulers, and binding the 
children to love and revere them, and to submit 
to their guidance. And happy is that family 
where each feels that there need be no secrets ; 
where parents and children counsel freely to- 
gether and all combine their wisdom and their 
strength to secure the good of the entire circle. 
" Two are better than one " for if they fall, 
the one will lift up his fellow ; but woe to liim 
that is alone when he falleth." A family united, 
and made as one by mutual affection and confi- 
dence, presents a firm front to the attacks of mis- 
fortune ; but where discord and distrust creep in, 
the household is as an army routed, broken, 
scattered, and at the mercy of the foe. How 
wise, then, the precept, and how full of meaning 
the implied promise : " Honour thy father and 
thy mother, that it may be well with thee." 
Eph. vi, 2, 3. 

4. A regard for justice and right should lead 
children to make all possible return for parental 
care and love. 

Consider how entirely the child is dependent 
upon its parents, not only for the supply of its 
physical wants, but for those numberless atten- 
tions which spring from affection, and are neces- 
sary to make the nobler nature happy. Through 
the tedious months of helpless infancy they have 



FIFTH COMMANDMENT. 113 



watched over him with unwearied anxiety, and 
never-failing fulness of love. By day and by 
night he was uppermost in their thoughts. 
From the rising of the sun to the going down of 
the same they have waited to supply all his 
wants, and guard him from harm. And many 
a time, when sickness made its attack, and pain 
rendered him fretful, the hours of needed rest 
have been given up, without a murmur, to weari- 
some vigils beside his couch. Like the sacred 
fire in the temple of old, this mighty love burns 
on with perpetual light and warmth. This love 
beheveth all things, hopeth all things, beareth 
all things. It is proof against waywardness, 
folly, and even ingratitude. Many waters can- 
not quench it, nor the floods drown it. 

Would you know the might of a father's love ? 
See David's affection for his rebellious Absalom. 
That ungrateful son sought to wrest the sceptre 
from his father's hand, and to transfer the crown 
of Israel from that father's aged brow to his own. 
He plotted insurrection and bloodshed to secure 
the kingdom. And when he deemed all things 
ripe for the blow, he set up his banners, caused 
himself to be proclaimed sovereign, and with an 
armed band of reckless men, thirsting for plun- 
der and riot, marched to attack Jerusalem. The 
aged king, dismayed by the sudden, unlooked-for 
onset, fled by night, on foot, and almost alone, 
to save his life among the mountains : and but 
for the faithful friendship of a single man, the 



114: 



THE RIGHT WAY. 



father would in all probability have been slain 
by the remorseless son. After a time the serv- 
ants of David gathered about him, and resolved 
that they would not give up the venerable hero 
to his cruel enemies. They took up arms in his 
defence ; and as the army of the persevering 
usurper drew near, the followers of the king went 
forth to contend for the anointed of the Lord. 
As band after band marched out of the city 
where David had taken refuge, he stood by the 
gate, and gave them his solemn charge. And 
what were his commands ? A cool reasoner, 
void of paternal love, would have advised them 
to seek out Absalom, and slay him at once, as 
the soul of the rebellion, and thus crush the 
insurrection, without further shedding of blood. 
But not so did the king feel. His earnest, be- 
seeching injunction to all, captains and warriors, 
was, "See that no evil befall the young man, 
even Absalom." Soon the last of the steel-clad 
ranks had receded from his eyes over the plain, 
and soon the battle was begun. A little cloud 
of dust arose like a mist in the distance, and a 
faint murmur of clashing swords, and the shout- 
ing of hoarse voices far away, rose and fell with 
the varying wind. The king remained at the 
gate waiting for tidings. I^ot only his kingdom 
and his crown, but even his life, depended upon 
the issue of the combat raging. If his faithful 
soldiers should be defeated by overpowering 
hosts, an hour might see his enemies at the gate, 



FIFTH COMMANDMENT. 



115 



and his own head, stricken off at a son's com- 
mand, might be lifted up to the eyes of the foe, 
with his gray hairs wet with blood. He knew 
it all — felt it all. A messenger came running 
swiftly over the plain, and as he came to where 
the king sat, he fell down panting npon the 
earth, and cried, "All is well!" But did the 
king break forth in rejoicings that the rebellion 
was crnshed, and peace restored to his old age ? 
Nay ; he asks an eager question, " Is the young 
man Absalom safe ?" The messenger could not 
tell ; and without any other word of inquiry, the 
king bids him stand aside, and again his whole 
soul is concentrated upon the deeds going on in 
the dim horizon's verge. There came another 
herald, and as he rushed to the place where 
David sat, he exclaimed : " Tidings, my lord the 
king, for the Lord hath avenged thee !" And 
again, forgetful of all else, David puts the eager 
question ; " Is the young man Absalom safe ?" 
The messenger, in his ignorance of the undying 
love of a father, replied, " Let all thy enemies be 
as that young man is." And the king was much 
moved, and covering his face, he turned away, 
and went into a chamber over the gate, weeping 
as he went, and saying in the bitterness of grief: 
" O my son, Absalom ! my son, my son Absalom ! 
would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, 
my son, my son!" Such is the strong regard 
of a father for even an ungrateful, rebellious 
son. 



116 



THE EIGHT WAY. 



And would you know the tender love of a 
mother ? Behold Kizpah, the daughter of Aiah. 
There was a dreadful famine in the land : the 
heavens had long withheld their fruitful showers, 
and the perishing nation, when they inquired 
the reason why they were thus visited, were re- 
minded of the violated treaty with the Gibeonites, 
whom Saul had pursued with fire and sword. 
They sought to propitiate God, by reaffirming 
the old compact, and Gibeah demanded the sacri- 
fice of seven of the sons of Saul, their great 
enemy. David agrees to the terms, and the 
victims are sought. The executioners seized upon 
the two sons of the widowed Eizpah, and led 
them forth to death. They were hanged : and 
when life had fled, the avengers of blood de- 
parted, leaving their bodies suspended on the 
tree. The place was a lonely hill ; and there, by 
night, the wolf uttered his dreary howl, and 
by day the vulture, perched on a crag, with 
piercing eye, looked around for his disgusting 
food. That mother's heart was broken by her 
sorrows ; her sons were slain, and their corpses 
hung blackening in the desert air. That mother's 
soul yearned over their lifeless forms. She knew 
that all that could suffer had gone : yet she could 
not bear the thought that the forms that she had 
so often pressed to her bosom, should be torn 
and devoured. "And Eizpah, the daughter of 
Aiah, took sackcloth, and spread it for her 
upon the rock, from the beginning of harvest 



FIFTH COMMANDMENT. 



117 



until the water dropped upon them out of heaven, 
and suffered neither the birds of the air to rest 
upon them by daj, nor the beasts of the field by 
night." That dreadful spot, where the decaying 
bodies hung, was dearer to her than her deserted 
home ; and the silent dead were society that she 
loved better than the converse of the living. 
And why ? There were the bodies of her chil- 
di'en, her beloved sons ; and the immeasurable 
tenderness of a mother's love could still find 
something in which to employ itself, and expend 
its treasure of devoted attachment. 

In these, young man, young woman, you see 
illustrations of the love with which your parents 
regard you. Tour parents would willingly risk 
life in your defence : if need was, they would 
throw themselves upon the point of the dagger 
that sought your life. If the deadly plague should 
seize you, your mother would brave its terrible 
infection, that she might smooth your pillow, 
and bathe your throbbing brow : and though 
every other soul should fly, she would watch 
beside your couch with ready hand and sleep- 
less eye, to minister to your wants. If even vice 
and crime should render you an object of scorn 
and reprobation to all beside, your mother will 
chng to you to the last, and her invincible tender- 
ness will follow you to the prison or the gallows. 
Ah, the love of a mother ! Who shall mete out 
its height and its depth ? Who shall weigh it in 
the balances ? It " never faileth." It can bear 



118 



THE EIGHT WAY. 



all suffering, endure all labour, surmount all 
obstacles, and triumph over even ingratitude 
itself. 

And sball this wealth of affection call forth 
no responsive regard? Shall all be lost upon 
the insensate heart of the child ? 'Nslj, " honour 
thy father and thy mother," and thus show thy- 
self grateful. Remember, love is sensitive. Your 
parents look to you as their great earthly comfort 
and joy. Their happiness is in your hands; if 
you are such as a son or a daughter should be, 
they will be happy ; their eyes shall follow you 
with pride and joy. In declining years they 
will lean upon yom- faithful arm ; and as they 
enter the valley of the shadow of death, their 
eyes shall glance fondly back on you, and your 
name shall breathe in their last grateful prayer. 
But if you are ungrateful, and unmindful of your 
obligations, their joys are destroyed; the light 
of their lives is gone out ; and their age is full 
of trouble. To their crushed hearts every act 
of unkindness lacerates anew ; every sullen look 
is as a blow ; and every bitter word stabs like 
the assassin's dagger. Justice, then, honour, 
every noble principle, every generous feeling, 
will prompt you to obey this precept, and thus 
make some little return for the unnumbered 
kindnesses of parental love. 

5. Lastly, regard for their own happiness 
should prompt children to obey this divine com- 
mand, " Honour thy father and mother . . . that 



FIFTH COMMANDMENT. 



119 



it may be well with thee." Young man, thought- 
less, wilful — fond of thy own opinion and of thy 
own course — regardless of the advice of thy fa- 
ther, forgetful of the tender expostulations of thy 
mother, it will not be " well with thee " till thou 
art changed. Young woman, giddy, inconsid- 
erate, fond of the admiration of strangers, and 
lavishing thy winning smiles upon them, while 
thy parents are doomed to cold neglect, it can 
never be "well with thee" till thy unfeeling 
heart softens, and thine eyes run down with re- 
pentant tears. 

The curse of God follows disobedient children. 
A life that begins with ingratitude to parents 
seldom glides on happily, or ends with honour. 
And how can children be happy who bear in 
their hearts the di*ead secret of their un kindness 
to those who bore them? How can they enjoy 
hfe, whose ingratitude has imbittered the de- 
chning years of an affectionate father, or a 
devoted mother ? The gloomy hour of reflection 
will come. Children should recollect that, in the 
order of nature, their parents will die before 
them. Suddenly, it may be, they will be sum- 
moned to the dying bed of that parent who loved 
them with the whole heart. The last faltering 
farewell shall be spoken, and the eyes that ever 
looked kindly shall be closed in death, and silence 
seal the lips on which the accents of affection 
lingered so fondly. And then, disobedient son, 
undutifal daughter, what floods of sorrows shall 



120 



THE RIGHT WAY. 



pour into thy soul ! As thou standest hj the 
silent dead, in the solemn stillness of the cham- 
ber of dissolution, the past shall come in quick 
review before thine eyes. Every unkind word, 
that caused a tear to flow from the eye now 
closed forever — every undutiful act, that caused 
a pang in the heart, now cold and still, will come 
back to thee, and gnaw thy heart with the tooth 
of remorse ; and the keenest arrow of grief will 
be the fact that all is past, gone forever ; and no 
repentant voice can reach the dull ear of death ; 
no act of contrition soothe the wounded heart of 
the departed, or allay the anguish of thine own. 

On the contrary, how consoling the reflections 
of an affectionate child, as he leans upon the 
tomb-stone of his parents, and meditates on the 
past. He sorrows for them, but no remorse 
mingles with his grief. With grateful joy, he 
can say that the heart, now mouldered to dust, 
never was wrung by his uu kindness ; and a tear 
of genial sorrow falls upon the green turf, as he 
remembers how his parents loved him, how they 
leaned upon him in their old age, and even in 
the last hours of ebbing life, when the power of 
speech was already gone, their glazing eyes turn- 
ed fondly to his face, and their moving lips 
breathed silent benedictions on his head. 

Eeader, which alternative shall be thine ? K 
the deed be not already done ; if thou hast not 
abeady inherited sorrow by thy unkind treat- 
ment of thy parents, pierce not the hearts that 



FIFTH COMMANDMENT. 121 

beat with love to thee. Cherish them as thy 
dearest friends, thy most precious treasm^es, thy 
greatest honom-. Thus shall it be well with thee : 
and the thought that thou didst render them 
happy, shall be a source of unfailing satisfaction, 
even to the last hour of thy pilgrimage below, 
and shall bring down upon thy head the ap- 
proving smile of thy Father in heaven. 

6 



122 



THE KIGHT WAT. 



YI. 

SIXTH COMMANDMENT. 

THOU SHALT NOT KILL. 

Fallen man is endowed with passions which 
sometimes become destructive. In retm-n for 
real or imaginary injuries, his fellow-man be- 
comes the object of his ma]ignant emotions, and 
he would fain turn and crush the aggressor, as he 
crushes the insect that has stung him. Too often 
men are reckless of human life, and waste it in 
needless wars, or even throw it away in their 
sport. Thus the fierce blow of sudden passion, 
the cool dagger-thrust of the assassin, the cruelty 
of the tyrant, and the hot ambition of the warrior, 
conspire to pour out human blood, and cover 
earth's fair bosom with the dead bodies of her 
sons. But these same fierce passions sometimes 
turn against him who cherishes them. It is said 
that a scorpion, surrounded by the flames, and 
finding no way of escape, will thrust his poisoned 
sting into his own body, and die by his own 
venom. Thus man may sink into the depths of 
a sullen despair, or be roused into a frantic rage 
which causes him to thrust a dagger into his own 
maddened heart. Life is valuable ; it is also very 
frail, and when once gone, can never return. 
Therefore God interposes in its defence, and, with 
the voice that caused Sinai to tremble, has issued 



SIXTH COMMANDMENT. 123 



his mandate to all manMnd, and to all time. 
Thus saith the Lord: ''-Thou sTialt not MllP 
This comma/ndment is exceeding hroad^"^ as a 
very brief discussion will suffice to demonstrate. 

I. What is foebidden in this commandment ? 

1. It forbids our lightly esteeming our own life. 

(1.) Suicide, or self-murder, is here condemned. 
For the same reasons that others may not wanton- 
ly destroy our lives, we are prohibited from lay 
ing violent hands upon ourselves. He who vol- 
untarily takes his own hfe, thus ending his earth- 
ly probation, and rushing unbidden into the 
presence of his Judge, violates the express direc- 
tion of his Creator. 

(2.) Duelling is also forbidden. The suicide 
seeks his own life ; the assassin seeks the life of 
another. The duellist risks his own hfe in order 
to slay another man, and consequently stains his 
soul with a double crime. 

(3.) To plunge into any vice which tends di- 
rectly to the destruction of life, is a violation of 
the divine injunction. The tendency of every 
vice, indeed, is to shorten existence, while " the 
fear of the Lord jprolongeth doAjs^ Still there 
are vices which waste the vital powers so openly, 
that to indulge in them is the undeniable spirit 
of murder. Such, for instance, are the sins of 
drunkenness, hcentiousness, and gluttony. These 
lead to death, and destroy the soul as well as the 
body. 



124 



THE EIGHT WAY. 



(4.) This precept condemns all unwise risk of 
life. 

There are circumstances which justify ns in 
encountering the most imminent danger. To 
plunge into the rapid tide to save a fellow- 
being who is abeady sinking; to rush into a 
burning house, or venture to the crumbling edge 
of a precipice, in order to pluck thence those 
who without our aid must perish, is not only a 
lawful, but a noble deed. It is right for us thus 
to endanger ourselves that we may save others 
from death, otherwise inevitable. 

It is lawful, too, to risk life in behalf of that 
which is more valuable than life. To adhere to 
truth, in defiance of the terrors of death, is sub- 
lime virtue. Do we seek examples of it? A 
noble army of martyrs rises upon our vision. 
They obeyed God rather than man, and neither 
the axe nor the fagot could shake their constancy. 
"They were stoned; they were sawn asunder; 
were tempted; were slain with theswordP ISTot 
a century has passed but they have poured out 
their blood like water, "for the word of God^ 
and the testimony which they held,^^ and there- 
fore their souls are now " under the altojr^'' clothed 
in white robes, and waiting "a little season!'^ for 
their brethren who are yet battHng for the truth 
on the earth. 

Life may be risked without sin in efforts to 
save souls. In this glorious cause Paul " comited 
not his life dea/r unto himself.^'' It is right for a 



SIXTH COMMANDMENT. 125 



minister to expose himself to contagion that he 
may pray beside the couch of the dying sinner, 
and point him to the Lamb of God. To tell the 
glad tidings of salvation to perishing souls, it is 
lawful for the herald of the cross to visit foreign 
lands, though death breathe in the air, and 
though ravenous beasts, and savages fiercer than 
they, prowl about his path, thirsting for blood. 
" Let a thousand fall, but let not Africa be given 
up," was the dying exclamation of Cox, the mis- 
sionary on those distant shores ; and if that con- 
tinent could not receive the knowledge of God 
without this expenditure, it might be the duty 
of the Church to pay the price cheerfully. 

But when corrupt appetites and unholy pas- 
sions would tempt us into peril, compliance 
involves guilt. We may condemn the pearl- 
diver, who gropes in the depths of the dark 
waters for the pale gems of the sea. He wears 
out his strong frame, and grows prematurely old, 
that he may deck the gay votaries of pleasure 
with the ornaments which gratify their vanity. 
But he who overtasks his strength in the ambi- 
tious pursuit of wealth, power, place, or " the 
honour which cometh of men^^ is equally wrong, 
indeed is more to be condemned, since the pearl- 
fisher, toiling to supply the wants of those de- 
pendent upon him, is impelled by a better mo- 
tive. Whoever, from a physical disinclination 
to active life, neglects due exercise, and thus in- 
duces disease, is condemned ; and the gay vie- 



126 



THE RIGHT WAT. 



tims of fashionable folly, with their deformed 
chests, and scanty clothing, are sinning against 
themselves and others. 

Moreover, he who refuses to study the laws of 
health, who makes no use of his reason and his 
experience in selecting his food, his clothing, 
and the arrangements of his dwelling, but blindly 
follows his whims, his prejudices, or his physical 
appetites, is far from being guiltless. He who 
is conscious that some habit, which he perhaps 
formed long ago, and which has been growing 
more and more tyrannical ever since, is under- 
mining his constitution, and lessening his powers 
of usefulness, is guilty before G-od and man if he 
continues the work of destruction. In fine, every 
act, every pursuit, every habit, every course of 
conduct, which needlessly or unwisely shortens 
existence, or impairs the powers which render 
existence valuable, is a direct violation of the 
law which saith, " Tliou shalt not MllP 

n. The precept also forbids our lightly 

ESTEEMING THE LIVES OF OTHERS. 

1. It forbids murder, or the taking of humcm 
life, without the divine sanction. Unto God 
the Lord helong the issues from deaths He who 
holds our lives in his hand, claims the right to 
fix their duration, and the modes in which they 
shall terminate. He executes his will by vari- 
ous instrumentalities. Pestilence, famine, dis- 
ease, or accident, may be made to accomplish 



SIXTH COMMANDMENT. 



127 



his wise designs. Human hands are sometimes 
commissioned to execute his purposes. He who, 
in the days of l^oah, bid the floods lift up their 
voice, and put on their strength ; who, in the 
days of Moses, commanded the earth to engulf 
gross transgressors, may deem it best to send 
some Joshua to put a multitude to the sword, or 
may leave it on record for all time, that " whoso 
sheddeth mam) 8 yiood^^ in his passion, " hy man 
shall his hlood he shed^^^ in retribution. Instances 
have occurred in the history of the race, where 
God has directed human life to be taken ; but 
these are not wars, properly speaking, nor mur- 
ders, but executions. Death is made the conse- 
quence of sin. " By one man's offence " it reigns 
over a prostrate world ; and He who is the Judge 
of all the earth, may, in one case, send forth 
raging pestilence or wan famine, the swift storm, 
or the tossing earthquake, as his messenger, and 
in another, may say to the ruler of the people, 
" The murderer shall surely lye jput to deathP It 
is evident, then, that in time past God has com- 
manded the death-penalty to be inflicted in cer- 
tain cases, and consequently, that he is not in- 
consistent with himself in making loss of life the 
uniform punishment for deliberate murder. 

A question here arises with regard to the right 
of self-defence, and the extent to which active 
resistance may be carried. K om- deflnition of 
murder be correct, we have but to inquire of 
God. One rule which Jehovah prescribed to 



128 



THE BIGHT WAY. 



his ancient people, was this : If a thief he 
fowfid hreaking up^ and le smitten that he die, 
there shall no hlood he shed for him. If the sun 
he risen upon him, there shall he hlood shed for 
him, for he should make full restitution^ 

Here it is permitted to kill a thief who breaks 
into a dwelling by night ; but if the attempt oc- 
cur by day, it is unlawful to take his life. The 
permission and the restriction may both have 
grown out of the fact, that robbers discovered 
and assaulted while plundering in the darkness, 
will be likely to commit murder in order to effect 
their escape ; but that the danger of this is less 
during the day. Again, the thief could be de- 
tected by day without personal collision, and 
consequently with less temptation on his part to 
resort to violence. For these reasons, and per- 
haps others, the owner of the property, who was 
permitted to slay the nocturnal house-breaker, 
was compelled to content himself with the ex- 
action of the fine, if robbery was perpetrated by 
day. 

It is difficult, perhaps impracticable, to define 
the limits of the right of defence. The passage 
quoted teaches, that under certain circumstances 
life might lawfully be taken, even in the defence 
of property. And for a stronger reason, we may 
infer that it is lawful for us to resist, even to the 
destruction of the aggressor's life, unprovoked 
personal attacks, made with malicious intent. 
If the assassin seeks our blood, or some outrage 



SIXTH COMMANDMENT. 129 



worse than death be threatened, we may defend 
ourselves to the full extent of our ability, re- 
gardless of the effect upon the assailant. Still, 
life cannot be taken lawfully on all occasions, 
nor is the slightest countenance given to the 
spirit of revenge. To be certain that we are 
right in defending ourselves at the cost of the life 
of others, we must be certain, not only that we 
are acting strictly on the defensive, but that the 
wrong threatened is of sufficient magnitude to 
justify the sacrifice. 

It seems evident that whatever another may 
lawfully do, we may lawfully aid him in doing, 
in case he needs and asks our help. If we see 
the innocent and the defenceless threatened with 
cruel outrage, we may defend them, by doing 
for them all which they might justly do, had 
they the strength. And if the wrong threatened 
justify the taking of life in self-defence, the as- 
sailant may be slain, and " there shall no Hood 
he shed for himP 

If dire outrage and death be threatened by 
an organized band of robbers and murderers, 
those over whom the danger hangs may com- 
bine their strength for defence. In other words, 
strictly defensive wars are lawful, whether the 
enemy be a rapacious foreigner, or a tyrant of 
our own nation. But in all cases, the war must 
be not only truly defensive, but the wrong in- 
flicted or menaced must be sufficient to justify 
the vast expenditure of blood and treasure which 
6* 



130 



THE EIGHT WAY. 



war always involves.- A dispute about some 
petty island, or a few miles of barren sand or 
sterile rock, bas sometimes plunged nations into 
a war, one day's expenditure of wbicb would 
bave bougbt, ten times over, tbe territory in dis- 
pute, ^rations sometimes are burried into bos- 
tilities by professed regard for national bonour, 
Tbese are wboUy unjustifiable. Tbe bonom- of 
tbe duellist is all a sbam, a bubble floating on 
tbe surface of a foul stream. Wben a man is 
steeped in villany, wben be bas lost all vestiges 
of conscience, be begins to bluster about bis 
" bonour." Tbe same may be said of nations, 
and " violated bonour " is generally a mere pre- 
text to bide ambition, avarice, or revenge, and 
veil some scbeme of unmitigated wrong. In 
sucb contests as tbese, every soldier slain is a 
murdered man, and tbe blood and tbe guilt 
cleave to every man, public or private, wbo 
countenances tbe gigantic crime. 

2. Tbe law of God probibits duelling because 
it contemplates murder, as well as involves tbe 
crime of suicide. 

It was once practised as a mode of redressing 
wrongs, and maintaining tbe rigbt. It bad a 
logic and a moral code of its own. Wben society 
was but imperfectly organized, and tbe patient 
investigations of modern courts of law were un- 
known, tbe accuser and tbe accused, or tbeir 
cbosen cbampions, sometimes proposed to settle 
tbe case by single combat, believing tbat God, 



SIXTH COMMANDMENT. 



131 



to whom the J professedly referred the case, would 
reward the innocent with victory, and bring foul 
defeat npon the guilty. This plan of deciding 
civil suits and criminal prosecutions, seems to 
abound in pious faith; but where is the proof 
that, in all disputes, great and small, God will 
miraculously interpose to defend innocence and 
punish guilt? Without this intervention, it is 
clear that the result could have no certain inter- 
pretation. 

Modern duels, however, have no connexion 
with any such idea. They are mere manifesta- 
tions of bad passions, false reasoning, and low 
morals. One " gentleman " insinuates that an- 
other " gentleman" lies, which quite probably is 
the fact. The code of honour by which they are 
governed decrees a challenge, and a hostile meet- 
ing. The challenger sets himself up to be shot 
at, because he has been told the truth ; and the 
challenged man is shot at for telling the truth ; 
and, miracles and blank cartridges aside, skill or 
accident determines who shall be hit. Wherever 
the balls go, no special light is cast upon the 
question. No one deems even a mortal wound 
a logical proof of guilt ; and if no harm should be 
done by the first discharge, the parties generally 
shake hands politely, declare themselves satis- 
fied, and the whole question is settled. What 
an idiotic farce! What a piece of mm*derous 
folly ! Every man slain in a duel is a murdered 
man, and his ''hlood crieth unto Ood from the 



132 



THE KIGHT WAY. 



groundP The slayer is a murderer in the sight 
of Heaven, and the brand of Cain is upon hiin ; 
and every man who helps on a duel, directly or 
indirectly, and whether blood be shed or not, is 
a murderer in heart. 

3. This precept condemns all want of due care 
for the lives of others. 

This lack is sometimes seen in professional life. 
The physician may administer large quantities 
of powerful medicines, giving himself no concern 
touching the consequences. The apothecary may 
deal out his di'ugs ignorantly and recklessly, and 
thus scatter death on every side. The same 
criminal indifference is seen in the headlong- 
engineer on the railway or the steam-vessel, the 
indolent or inattentive pilot of a ship, and the 
incompetent constructor .of bridges. The ava- 
ricious capitalist who endangers human life 
and health by his unwillingness to make his 
property safe for those who occupy it, is con- 
demned, as well as the seller of unwholesome 
food, and the dealer in deleterious patent-medi- 
cines. 

The vender of alcohol as a beverage is steeped 
in damning guilt. His trade is " the sum of all 
mllany^'^ and the essence of all meanness. His 
business is essentially selfish, dishonest, and mur- 
derous. He lives by thieving, though destitute 
of a thief's ingenuity, and assassinates, without 
needing the courage to stab. He fills his coffers 
by plundering his victims ; he clothes himself in 



SIXTH COMMANDMENT. 133 



purple and fine linen hj stripping the orphan ; 
and little innocent children cry for bread that he 
may riot on sumptnons fare, without labour. 
The manufacturer of the poison, the wholesale 
dealer, and the owner of the house rented as a 
place of sale, are not a whit behind the vender 
in guilt. Their share in the abominable business 
is just as criminal, and full as cruel, and dis- 
honest, and mean, and murderous. 

4. The law also forbids encouraging others to 
hazard their lives foolishly. 

A few years since a man in this State con- 
ceived the idea that leaping from considerable 
heights into deep water is not dangerous, if skil- 
fully done. A few experiments having been 
performed with apparent safety, he made a pub- 
lic-exhibition of his skill and courage. Crowds 
assembled, and wondered greatly at his daring 
feats. Encouraged by their money and applause, 
he became more and more daring in his per- 
formances, till at last he made a plunge from 
which he never rose. He had no right thus to 
peril his Kfe. Every one of the foolhardy ex- 
ploits which made the crowd stare and shout 
was an open transgression of God's law, and 
every one who shouted him on to his own de- 
struction was guilty in the sight of Heaven. 

To risk life or Umb foolishly, is wrong ; and 
to encourage another to incur this danger, 
merely to amuse us for a moment, is sin. In 
whatever mode, therefore, physical well-being is 



134: 



THE EIGHT WAY. 



put in jeopardy, — whether it be a disgraceful 
pugilistic combat, or a silly contest in diinking 
alcohol, or any other hazardous feat, — he who 
helps on the wickedness, even by his presence, 
involves himself in condemnation. 

5. This commandment forbids fierce passion — 
all words that breathe threatening and slaugh- 
ter — all disposition to return evil for evil. 

These are the germs from which murder grows, 
the fountains from which flow streams of human 
gore. Where these fountains are dried, the 
stream ceases. The laws of the Searcher of 
hearts refer to more than the overt act. They 
weigh thoughts, motives, desires, intentions, and 
" sift them as wheatP Inspiration has declared 
that, " Whosoever hateth his hr other is a mur- 
derer P " Dea/rly teloved^ a/venge not yov/rsel/ves^ 
hut rather giwe place unto wrath', for it is 
written^ Yengea/nce is mine i I will repay ^ saith 
the Lord. Therefore, if thine enemy hunger., 
feed him ; if he thirst., give him drin'kP We 
are exhorted to be meek, forgiving and compas- 
sionate to all, and to love even our enemies. 
Whoever falls below this, falls below the re- 
quirements of Jehovah. Man makes laws to 
regulate the outward conduct merely ; but God 
legislates for the heart. A man may be guilt- 
less in the eyes of the civil ruler, and yet be a 
murderer in intention. All he may lack to make 
him one in fact is the brute courage to strike 
the blow. 



SIXTH COMMANDMENT. 135 



6. The law may be understood to be given, 
not only for the protection of human life, but 
also to protect the lower animals from cruel 
usage. 

We have no right to destroy any animal life, 
without the sanction of Him without whose no- 
tice not a sparrow falleth to the ground. God 
has nowhere sanctioned the infliction of needless 
pain upon any of his creatures, from archangels 
to animalcules. We may defend ourselves 
against the prowling panther ; we may set our 
foot upon the head of the venomous serpent ; 
we may crush the noxious insect. To provide 
ourselves with food, we may take the life of the 
unresisting domestic animal, or slay the fowls 
of the air, or the fish of the sea. Man is the 
god of the lower animals, and he has a right to 
employ them for his own good. But if we find 
infernal sport in their dying moans and mortal 
agony, we are transgressing the designs of our 
benevolent Maker, and training our hearts in 
brutality, which may, at some time, turn against 
our fellow-man. Even in killing animals for 
food we must be careful to cause them to feel 
no more pain than is unavoidable. 

The same benevolent law requires that beasts 
of burden and of draught be treated with kind- 
ness. He who lashes the noble horse, or pa- 
tient ox, in his blind rage, or wilfully makes 
their lives bitter with starvation and unjust la- 
bours, will find out that he too has a Master : 



136 



THE RIGHT WAT. 



" Ood canreth for oxenP Every animal whicli 
we employ for profit or for pleasm-e, from the 
meek labourer in the furrow, to the singing-bird 
in his cage, is entitled to all the happiness con- 
sistent with the designs with which they have 
been given to man ; nor are we permitted to 
shorten their lives, or inflict pain upon them by 
fierce passion, avaricious oppression, or neglect : 
" A righteous man rega/rdeth the life of his heastP 
It would be easy to show, also, that the cruel 
treatment here condemned, is as inconsistent 
with man's pecuniary interests, as with the cul- 
tivation of the humane sentiments, 

U. Reasons for the enactment op this law. 
1. Human life is valuable to the possessor 
himself. 

Man is immortal. Life here determines the 
character of life hereafter. Eternity is moulded 
by time. Existence in this world is the title-page 
of a volume whose last leaf shall never be penned. 
The present moment is the time when the seed 
is planted which shall grow up into a " tree of 
Hfe," or the spark is struck which shall kindle 
into everlasting burnings. To the transgressor, 
every successive day is added opportunity to fiee 
from wrath and sin. To the wise, each hour 
affords space to secure another gem for an eter- 
nal crown. Every moment, then, is a golden 
sand, and blessed is he who hoards them well. 
His life here is a path of light ; and in the world 



SIXTH COMMANDMENT. 



137 



to come, he " shall shim as the stars forever and 
everP ITot one of his good deeds shall be forgot- 
ten, or pass unrewarded. Every pious act shall 
add another leaf to his palm of victory. Every 
drop of gladness that he distills into the cup of the 
sorrowing, every tear that he wipes from the 
face of the fatherless, shall return to him in 
"rwers of pleasures at GocPs right hand.^'' To 
him life surely is valuable. 

2. Every man is also bound to render his life 
valuable to society. N'one of us 'Hiveth to him- 
self^'' Every man is under obligations to make 
his life tell upon the world. His relatives look 
to him for warm attachment and friendly aid. 
The poor need his help. The Church of God 
demands his prayers and his active zeal. The 
cause of virtue asks his countenance and his win- 
ning example. The great interests of the race 
require the strong workings of his intellect, and 
the deep emotions of his heart. Every depart- 
ment of human progress solicits his helping hand. 
]^o mortal has a right to be a cipher in the 
world. And he that is wise will find some noble 
work to do, and will do it with his might, till his 
Master shall say, " Well doneP 

A right-minded man, therefore, will count life 
precious, and will labour to redeem the timeP 
And when about to cease from his toils ; when 
life's day is closing, and the lengthening shad- 
ows and the waning light tell of the hour of 
rest, he will mourn that he has accomplished so 



138 



THE EIGHT WAY. 



little, and will regret that he must cease while 
so much remains to be done. 

And now let ns digress a moment to speak a 
sympathizing word for the herald of the cross, 
whose failing health has compelled him to desist 
from the active duties of his holy vocation. Hard 
seems the lot of the youthful poet, who sinks and 
dies with his soul full of great thoughts, unut- 
tered and unpenned. Hard is the lot of the 
youthful hero, battling for the right, who is 
struck down at the first onset of some great vic- 
tory, and who, as the long columns of his com- 
rades press past him in full pursuit of the flying 
foe, and their exultant shouts are borne back- 
ward on the wind, lies upon the field, far in the 
rear, bleeding and faint, with his sword still in 
his feeble grasp. But harder still to be borne is 
the lot of him who longs to win souls, but whose 
waning strength compels him to surrender to 
other hands the banner which he loves to bear, 
and to give to another his post in the honoured 
ranks ; who listens to the onward tramp of hosts 
in which he can have no place, and hears of 
victories in which he can claim no share. May 
such have the strong sympathies of the Church 
below, even as they have the strong sympathies 
of a mighty Heart above. 

3. Suicide involves a desertion of the post 
which Providence has assigned us, and is there- 
fore wrong. 

Man is placed on earth to be trained for 



SIXTH COMMANDMENT. 139 



heaven. Many duties are enjoined npon Mm, 
and activity, zeal, and perseverance are demand- 
ed. He is under obligations to his Creator, to 
himself, his family, and to man. The suicide 
leaves his duties unperformed. Like an indolent, 
discontented servant, he throws down his tools 
in anger, and goes off, complaining of his mas- 
ter. But he has no right thus to rebel against 
the task which the wise and merciful Jehovah 
has assigned him. He has no right to desert his 
fellows, and leave his work to be done by others. 
He has no right to deprive society of the good 
which he may do if he will. He has no right to 
overwhelm his relatives with a load of sorrow. 
The suicide virtually brings an accusation against 
the Almighty, charging him with overt injustice 
or cruel neglect, and rushes unbidden into his 
presence with the blasphemy upon his lips. 
Saul, abandoned of God ; Ahithophel, conspiring 
against his lawful sovereign ; Judas, with inno- 
cent blood upon his traitor soul, sought death by 
their own hands; but these examples merely 
illustrate the cowardice and the sin inherent in 
the act of self-murder. 

4. K a man has no right to murder himself, 
no one else has a right to murder him. 

God has given our neighbour life, and we have 
no right, from avarice or malice, to wrest from 
him the gift divine. God has placed him upon 
the stage of action, and we have no right to 
thrust him off before God shall call him. "We 



140 



THE KiaHT WAT. 



are not permitted at any time wantonly to strike 
him to the earth, and thus perhaps leave his 
parents childless in their old age, leave his wife 
a widow, and his children fatherless. 

This matter mnst be surveyed from another 
point of view, and considered in its bearing upon 
things which lie beyond the bounds of time. 
Every man around us is either prepared or un- 
prepared for death. If, by repentance, faith, and 
a holy life, he shows that he is meet for the in- 
heritance of the saints^'' shall rage, or sordid 
love of money, deprive the Church and the world 
of a Christian's power for good ? "Who shall stop 
him, as he goes on his errands of mercy, and his 
labours of love ? Lawless violence cannot right- 
eously silence the praying voice — the steel of the 
assassin has no right to pierce a heart beating 
with generous love for all mankind. The bitter 
waters of passion have no right to sweep away 
^Hhe lights- of the world^^ or undermine the high 
towers of the "c^^y set on a hill.^^ 

If he, whom it is proposed to slay, be yet in 
his sins, how shall human wisdom decide when 
he has lived long enough ? How shall human 
hands, unauthorized, plunge him into everlasting 
burnings ? He who searches aU hearts may sever 
the silver cord whenever he sees it best; but 
man has no right to sunder it in his passion, and 
thus place him evermore beyond the reach of 
hope. "While the transgressor's lamp of hfe 
burns, it may be possible for him, for aught we 



SIXTH COMMANDMENT. 



141 



know, to turn and live ; but if the hand of vio- 
lence slay him, the same blow shatters the lamp, 
and dooms him to " the Uackness of darlcness for- 
everP 

5. If we have no right to murder our fellow 
man, we are guilty if we cherish destructive pas- 
sions towards him. Unholy emotions and affec- 
tions are the real sources of murderous deeds. 
Avarice, envy, malice, revenge, are the roots of 
the tree of deat*h. Every indulgence of bad pas- 
sions renders them more fierce and ungovernable. 
'''He that hateth his brother is a murderer and 
the more he indulges that hatred in his heart, 
the more he gloats over the fancied sweets of 
revenge, the more easily will he be hurried into 
murderous deeds. Crime is always acted over 
in the imagination, before it stains the hands 
with blood. It blazes in the eyes, it rages on 
the tongue, before it raises the dagger. Men 
who, in a gust of passion, stain their hands with 
murder, are invariably found to have been train- 
ing themselves for this very crime by long in- 
dulgence of angry emotions. 

The divine law strikes at the root of evil. It 
begins with the secret heart. God says to us, 
Dearly leloved^ OA^enge notyov/rseh^es f '-'Blessed 
onre the meek^ for they shall inherit the ea/rth y" 
''Blessed are the peace-maTcers^ for they shall 1)6 
called the children of GodP 

6. K it be unlawful to slay men directly, with- 
out the sanction of Jehovah, we are also forbid- 



142 



THE EIGHT WAT. 



den to murder them by any process, however 
slow, and however indirect. The great fact which 
lies at the fomidation of the prohibition is, that 
human life is valuable. But he who oppresses 
his dependents with labours too great for their 
strength, or gives them insufficient or unwhole- 
some food, or needlessly exposes them to disease 
in any way whatever, sins against their life. He 
who frets away the "silver cord," fibre by fibre, 
in himself or others, is as criminal as he who 
divides it at a blow. Indeed, his crime may be 
augmented by the coolness with which he works 
destruction. Disregard of life is the soul of mur- 
der. And he that is moved by his thirst for gold 
to encourage his neighbour in any vice tending 
to shorten existence, steeps his soul in guilt; 
and he that kills himself by his indulgence in 
evil habits, is as truly a suicide as he who em- 
ploys the pistol, the razor, or the rope for the 
purpose. These are all modes of manifesting the 
same criminal disregard of human life. 

7. To disregard health is to be reckless of Hfe, 
and is therefore wrong. Mere existence is not 
life. It consists not in the mere heaving of the 
lungs and the beating of the heart. To Hve, in 
the fall sense of the term, is to be in possession 
of all the faculties of our nature, both mental 
and physical. It is to possess the power to think 
and to feel, to will and to do. Existence is val- 
uable only as it enables us to accompHsh some- 
thing. 'Now he who wilfully injures his health, 



SIXTH COMMANDMENT. 



143 



wantonly detracts from tlie value of his life ; and 
the act by which he throws away a part of the 
treasure lent him, is a crime. He who needlessly 
di'ives a noble horse to death, is gnilty of a cruel 
thing ; but he who wrecks his own animal na- 
ture by his too eager pursuit of fame, wealth, or 
pleasure, is guilty of a worse deed. Every man 
is under obligation to regard the welfare of his 
body, as well as that of his soul. 'No man can 
escape condemnation who neglects to study well 
the laws of health. Our food or clothing, our 
pleasures, our labours, and our rest, should all 
be regulated by reason and conscience. If we 
have contracted any habit which we beheve to 
be detrimental to our health, we are sinners in 
the sight of God if we persist in it ; and in mak- 
ing up our belief in such cases, we are guilty if 
we refuse to examine the subject fairly and hon- 
estly. Life is but an aggregate of certain powers : 
and if we have a right to squander any of them, 
we have a right to throw away the whole. He 
who wantonly injures his health, clips the coin 
in which he pays back his Lord's money. If he 
may do this and be honest, he may repudiate 
the whole debt and be guiltless. 



THE EIGHT WAT. 



yn. 

SIXTH COMMANDMENT. 

THOU SHALT NOT KILL. 

Having discussed, in the former lecture, the 
rights of self-defence, I wish now to devote a 
little space to the advocacy of the peace princi- 
ple in private life. 

In a world where sin abounds, and where even 
good men are liable, through ignorance and 
prejudice, to go astray; where passion comes in 
conflict with passion, plan with plan, and inter- 
est with interest, we must expect collision and 
dispute. In these personal dfficulties one party, 
and sometimes both, will feel aggrieved and in- 
jured. In truth, oppression and injustice are 
by no means rare. The hand of violence is 
raised to strike the defenceless and the harmless. 
One man takes advantage of another's ignorance 
or weakness to strip him of his earnings or his 
inheritance ; he deceives him by bold falsehood 
or covert treachery, and thus the stores of indus- 
try become the prey of the spoiler. The wise 
Hebrew declares a good name "better than 
precious ointment;" yet the malignant tongue 
of the envious may plunge innocence into re- 
proach and disgrace, or the random words of 
the reckless tattler blast that which is as dear to 



SIXTH COMMANDMENT. 



145 



us as oiu' own lives. We maj be injured, too, 
by the injustice done tbose whom we love, and 
wbose wrongs we feel more keenly than we do 
those which concern us alone. 

In such cases the natural heart feels a fierce 
throb, a savage impulse, and passion clamours for 
retahation. Thus the more excitable man pours 
out a torrent of furious words, and, it may be, of 
wild oaths and blasphemy. Thus the cooler, but 
more mahgnant and implacable man, runs, with 
open pm'se, to unscrupulous lawyers, and sets the 
whole pack in full cry after the victim. Thus 
the barbarian seeks his foe with a step that never 
tires, and hate that never relents. Thus the 
duellist challenges the offender, and coolly bares 
his own bosom to death, that he may point a 
murderer's weapon at the heart of another. 
Tlius a stab, a curse, a law-suit, a slanderous 
tale, an insulting manner, or a secret act of 
malice, gives utterance to the devil raging 
within. 

To the heart untaught in the meek lessons of 
the gospel, all this is very natural. The wise 
men of heathenism have commended revenge, 
as something in all respects befitting an hon- 
ourable man; and even the philosophic Bacon 
styles it "a kind of wild justice." But God's 
teachings are not in accordance with our corrup- 
tions, nor are his ways as our ways. When fiery 
passions rage, and with many specious arguments 
are pleading for gratification, divine authority 
7 



146 



THE EIGHT WAY. 



interposes — Dearly leloved, amenge not your- 
selvesy hut rather give jplace unto wrath. Ven- 
geance is mine ; I will rej)ay^ saith the Lord. 
If thine enemy hunger, feed him ; if he thirst, 
give him drinkP 

This language is not designed to prohibit all 
defence of our reputation, persons, and property. 
When Paul was in the hands of his enemies, and 
they were about to inflict cruel wrong upon him, 
he appealed to the law of the empire, and the 
dread name of Rome saved him from the out- 
rage. We, too, may appeal to the civil power 
for the protection of our persons or property. 
K our actions or words are wrested from the 
truth to our injury, or when false reports are set 
in motion against us, we may, without sin, place 
ourselves right before the public. The thing 
prohibited is malice, spite, revenge, "returning 
evil for evil and railing for railing," all dispo- 
sition to inflict pain upon another to gratify our- 
selves. 

The spirit thus forbidden manifests itself in 
various ways, according to the character and the 
circumstances of the one whom it drags into sin. 

Deeds of retaliation are one form of manifesta- 
tion. Pain is inflicted in return for pain, blow 
answers blow, and injury repays injury. The 
rule of Jewish law, "An eye for an eye, and a 
tooth for a tooth," becomes a maxim of the heart, 
and a guide for individual conduct. To use it 
thus is to abuse it. 



SIXTH COMMANDMENT. 



147 



The language may sometimes reveal the re- 
vengeful spirit. Those who deem themselves 
injured by the deeds of others, reply with fierce 
or malicious words — ^threat answering threat, 
slander rebutting slander, and curse echoing to 
curse. 

Sometimes earnest, sleepless desires of revenge 
exist where no fierce words, no acts of violence, 
speak out the hidden passion. Hatred may be 
intense, and anger may burn fiercely ; and yet 
the overt act is kept back by weakness, coward- 
ice, or the meaner kind of prudence. The soul 
is as a volcano covered with snow, cold and still 
without, but tossing with a molten ocean of fire 
within. "Where mere inability or some selfish 
motive alone deters from active revenge, guilt 
is 'incurred, as if all which the imagination 
fondly pictures were carried into elffect. 

Hard thoughts and unkind feelings may be 
cherished, where there is no desire or intention 
to retaliate. Some, when they consider them- 
selves ill-treated, utter no threat, plot no retalia- 
tion, and yet they " nurse their wrath to keep it 
warm." They love to be angry. They seem to 
derive a gloomy pleasure from contemplating 
the wrong done them, and therefore they cannot 
be induced to speak to the offender, or even look 
at him, lest at some unlucky moment reparation 
should be made, and their bitter joys be lost for- 
ever. This sullen, pouting, cold-blooded, long- 
xived hate, with its averted eye, scowling brow, 



148 



THE EIG-HT WAT. 



and hanging under lip, belongs to the same class 
with active revenge, and differs from it only in 
being meaner and more contemptible. It closes 
the door of reconcihation more effectually than 
even open violence and sudden rage. It kills 
the finer feelings of the individual, and imbit- 
ters social intercourse, and is indeed the foe of 
society. 

With regard to this malevolent emotion, how- 
ever manifested, there can be but one conclusion. 
It is clearly forbidden in the express terms of the 
divine law, and is utterly at variance with the 
spirit of true religion. To cite passages proving 
this is easy: "Blessed are the meek, for they 
shall inherit the earth — '"Blessed are the peace- 
makers, for they shall be called the children of 
God " — " Bless them which persecute you ; bless, 
and curse not" — "Love your enemies" — "If 
thine enemy hunger, feed him ; if he thirst, give 
him drink." 

These passages do not give advice with refer- 
ence to what we ought to do occasionally, and 
imder peculiar circumstances, where there is 
everything to plead for the offender. They 
breathe the true spirit of the gospel of Christ ; 
the spirit which should ever beam in the coun- 
tenance, distil in the language, and breathe in 
the whole life of every man, everywhere, and 
with reference to all. They demand peace, love, 
and harmony, not only among kindred and in 
the Church, but in the community and through- 



SIXTH COMMANDMENT. 



149 



out the broad earth. They assume that the fol- 
lower of Christ may have enemies, real, virulent, 
and active. They make no distinction between 
an open foe and a treacherous friend; between 
those who war against us "honourably" and 
those who, with a smile upon the face and mur- 
der in the heart, seek opportunity to stab in the 
dark. 

Whatever may be the character of the aggres- 
sor, whatever his mode of warfare, we are com- 
manded to love him, and to be ready to do him 
good. All due means must be employed to win 
him to peace ; but even when all has failed, 
when his implacable nature is shown to be proof 
against kindness, we are still commanded to love 
him, and pray for him. The Christian should 
ever be ready to join in the chorus which angel 
voices rang out at midnight over the plains of 
Bethlehem : " Peace on earth : good- will to men." 

The line of conduct here commanded is, in the 
highest sense, right, expedient, and wise. This 
is evident, from various considerations. 

1. God forbids kevenge. 

He does not screen guilt from punishment. 
If you have been maliciously attacked in your 
person, property, or reputation, it is needless to 
attempt to plead for the offender, or to seek a 
cloak to cover his guilt. He has sinned against 
you, and he richly deserves to suffer for his sin. 
Brvt the question is, not whether he shall " go 



150 



THE EIGHT WAT. 



unwliipt of justice," but whether it is best for 
you to inflict the penalty ? God claims for him- 
self the office of a requiter of evil : " Vengeance 
is mine : I will repay, saith the Lord." Yen- 
geance is the thunderbolt of almighty power, and 
shall the puny arm of fl.esh attempt to wield it ? 
Vengeance belongs to Jehovah, and "will a man 
rob God?" 

"We seek to defend retaliation on the ground 
of om- love of justice, our desii'e that sin should 
have its due : but will not the Lord repay with- 
out our officious interference ? He will repay — 
" for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." He 
is not a weak, or careless ruler, who is unfit to 
be intrusted with the execution of his own laws 
nor is he an unjust Judge, who will wink at sin, 
and sell justice for a bribe. The question is 
simply this : "When we are ill-treated, are we 
willing to leave the matter in the hands of God, 
or must we needs take it into om- o^vn ? 

Look through this grated prison-door. Tlie 
criminal, whom we dimly see in the gloom, has 
committed a crime of the deepest dye, an out- 
rage which makes the ears of all who hear it 
tingle. Our veins swell with fiery indignation ; 
and for a moment we feel that we could willingly 
dash the wretch to the earth, and stamp him 
into the dust. But look again. Manacles are on 
his wrists ; a strong chain binds him to the 
ground ; iron grates and thick walls shut him in ; 
and at his door, and the darkened window, sleep- 



SIXTH COMMANDMENT. 161 



less sentinels hold their faithful watch. He has 
been tried, and fonnd guilty ; and a wise dis- 
penser of justice has pronounced a terrible sen- 
tence upon him. A few more hours, and he will 
lie helpless beneath the relentless hand of the 
executioner ; and the debt which he owes justice 
shall be exacted to the uttermost farthing. Con- 
templating these things, why should we feel like 
taking the matter into our own hands ? He is 
certain to receive his deserts : why, then, should 
we interfere with the regular course of law ? 

Thus it is in the case of him who has injured 
us. Our enemies are in the hands of Him whose 
grasp is. more sure than walls of brass, or fetters 
of iron. ITot the most secret act of their wrong- 
doing is unseen ; not the smallest false, malicious 
word, low whispered in the ear, is unheard. He 
knows all their guilt, and he has said, " I will 
repay." Let us leave our cause with God. 
There is an eye that never sleeps ; there is an 
arm whose strength never fails. That eye be- 
holds every wrong that we suffer ; that almighty 
arm holds over the head of every foe a sword 
drawn to avenge us of our adversaries. At the 
right moment the blow will fall, unerring, resist- 
less, relentless. Then " fret not thyself because 
of evil-doers," " for they shall soon be cut down 
like the grass :" and if they repent not, vengeance 
for every wrong done us shall sharpen the fangs 
of " the worm that never dies," and add increased 
fierceness to that torment, the smoke of which 



152 



THE RIGHT WAY. 



" ascendetti forever and ever." Truly, instead 
of burning with anger and thirsting for revenge 
when we are wronged, we should pity our enemy, 
and weep over the folly that thus " heaps up 
wrath against the day of wrath." 

n. Man is INOAPABLE of A^OMmiSTEEmG EXACT 
JUSTICE. 

As a means of vindicating the right, even civil 
law, though administered by the wisest and the 
best of men, is defective ; and the magistrate, 
though " ordained of God " to be a " terror to evil- 
doers," is not the dispenser of final awards — but 
his office is merely a temporary expedient, de- 
signed to keep in check those who will not live 
with reference to a surer judgment and a more 
august tribunal. But if the purest justice of the 
courts be defective, what must we say of private 
revenge ? Man is ignorant ; and the little wis- 
dom which he possesses is often clouded by 
interest, prejudice, and passion. Before I can 
safely proceed to avenge a supposed injury, a 
number of exceedingly difficult problems must 
be solved: 1. May not mistaken notions of 
the matter in dispute have led me into a false 
impression with regard to the treatment which 
I have received? 2. If it be true that I am 
wronged, am I sure that I do not overestimate 
the wrong? 3. Am I certain that the accused 
is the real offender? 4. Am I sure that the 
wrong was done designedly, and not through 



SIXTH COMMANDMENT. 



163 



error or inattention? 5. Am I sure that the 
offender has not repented, and is not now de- 
sirous of making reparation ? 6. Am I sure that 
the intended punishment is not greater than the 
offence demands ? 

If there be doubt with regard to any one of 
these points, we cannot proceed, without running 
the risk of becoming the aggressors, and of in- 
volving ourselves in guilt. When passion, like 
a malignant Shylock, clamours for the " pound 
of living flesh " named in " the bond," we do well 
to recollect the decision of the " upright judge :" — 

" Take then thy bond — take thou thy pound of flesh : 

Shed thou no blood ; nor cut thou less nor more, 

But just a pound of flesh : if thou takest more 

Or less than a just pound, — be it but so much 

As makes it light or heavy in the substance, 

Or the division of the twentieth part 

Of one poor scruple ; nay, if the scale do turn 

But in the estimation of a hair, — 

Thou diest." 

When he knows that the stern eye of an in- 
flexible Judge is upon him, noting the smallest 
deviation from the perfect rule, what rational 
man will dare to wreak his vengeance ? The 
folly and the foolhardiness of revenge are made 
the greater by the fact that God has reserved 
vengeance to himself. He has taken it from 
man, as a tender parent wisely takes a dangerous 
weapon from the hands of a little child, knowing 
that he cannot handle it without danger to him- 
self and others. When passion rages, it blindly 



154 



THE RIGHT WAT. 



strikes right and left ; and many a man has sor- 
rowed long and bitterly over the deeds of a 
moment. We had better leave om- cause, then, 
in the hands of Him whose awards are not dis- 
torted by passion, nor marred by weakness and 
error. He " searcheth the hearts and trieth the 
reins." He will not only detect the offender, 
but weigh the sin in a just balance, and accu- 
rately apportion the penalty to the degree of 
guilt. 

ni. The desire of revenge is inconsistent 

WITH THE SPIRIT OF THE GOSPEL. 

He who was once earthly, but who has been 
changed by the Holy Spirit, now "bears the 
image of the heavenly." He becomes like God, 
and is a " partaker of the divine nature." But 
" God is love." The pain which he inflicts upon 
his creatures proceeds not from malevolent pas- 
sions, but originates either in the tender love of 
the Parent, or the justice and truth of the Judge. 
He is " slow to anger, and of gi-eat mercy," and 
" hath no pleasure in the death of him that 
dieth." Christ lived for sinners ; he died for 
sinners, and with his last expiring cry there 
went forth the prayer, " Father, forgive them." 

When the Saviour taught his disciples to pray, 
he instructed them to say, " Forgive us our tres- 
passes, as we forgive those who trespass against 
us." He that never forgives, should never sin 
against God or man. The revengeful man who 



SIXTH COMMANDMENT. 



155 



uses this prayer, prajs that his great Judge 
may be as relentless toward him as he is toward 
others. The wild passion, or the cool malignity, 
which prompts to revenge, is totally contrary to 
all right conception of the character of God, and 
totally inconsistent with the position of one who 
is himself a transgressor, whose only hope is in 
the mercy of the offended. The incompatibility 
of revenge with true piety is seen in the fact 
that the slightest imoad of malice unhts the 
Christian for prayer or praise ; and, if not speed- 
ily cast out, kills all desire to commune with 
God. He that gives way to the spirit of revenge, 
is cultivating his own worst passions, and render- 
ing them more fierce and ungovernable. He 
joins in the employment of devils, and lights the 
fires of hell in his own bosom. 

rV". The peace-policy is the best policy. 

Revenge is a sharp, two-edged sword, without 
a hilt ; and he who seeks to wield it, cuts his 
own. hands while he wounds another. He who 
is always ready to give blows, will be sure to re- 
ceive blows : and the man who has resolved to 
revenge every injury, great and small, will find 
abundance of injuries to revenge. The evil pas- 
sions which show themselves in those around us 
are frequently roused by our own, and the angry 
words which we hear are often but the echo of 
our own voices. The declaration that " they 
that take the sword shall perish by the sword," 



156 



THE EIGHT WAY. 



is a maxim fomided in true philosopliy. But 
gentleness and meekness in us will call forth 
gentleness and meekness in others. K you are 
"smitten on the right cheek," and you coolly 
" turn the other also," that will probably be an 
end of violence ; but if you reply with a blow, 
no one can tell when the battle will cease. Peace- 
ful language and demeanour are often the very 
best means of defence. You may stand close 
beside a nest of hornets without danger if you 
are quiet and peaceful ; but if you begin to throw 
stones, a thousand angry stings will pierce you. 

" Love your enemies," for love will turn foes 
into friends. " K thine enemy hunger, feed him ; 
if he thirst, give him drink ; for in so doing thou 
shalt heap coals of fire on his head." The " re- 
finer of silver" puts the ore into the crucible, 
and heaps on the coals till the precious metal 
melts and flows in a pure stream, leaving the 
dross behind. So the angry man must be melted 
down with kindness. Evil must be overcome 
with good, if it is overcome at all. You may 
take the mass of ore, or of alloy, and hammer it till 
you are weary ; it is the same base mixture still, 
only grown harder under the blows. Thus vio- 
lence only increases the fury of an enemy. If 
you would melt down his passion, it must be 
done with the fire of love, the gentle heat of god- 
like benevolence ; live coals from no earthly 
altar; fire like that of the fabled Prometheus, 
stolen from heaven. 



SIXTH COMMANDMENT. 



157 



Let it not be said that this mode of treating an 
enemy is too tame to be hononrable and manlj. 
Adopt it, and you will have very few enemies, 
and find very little occasion for any mode of de- 
fence. The duellist may sneer at it ; bnt in trnth 
it requires a nobler, loftier courage, than that of 
the duellist. Surely the man who is not afraid 
to go unarmed is braver than he who dares not 
be without a weapon ; and the man who dis- 
cards revenge and brute force, and relies upon 
moral influence and dignity of character, acts a 
far more elevated part than the coward who 
dares not look his adversaries in the face unless 
he has his dagger ready drawn. To act on the 
peace-principle is more honourable than revenge. 
The one places you on a level with the wrong-doer ; 
the other exalts you above him, and leaves him 
impressed with a sense of his own meanness and 
sin, and of your superiority. 

Nor will this line of conduct leave us power- 
less in the hands of the violent and the unprin- 
cipled. God is the defence of his people ; and 
the results of obedience to him must always be 
good. The lover of peace, who has overcome 
his evil passions, and who feels only love to all 
men, has a surer defence than armour of brass, or 
weapons of steel. While " grievous words stir 
up strife," and " they who take the sword perish 
by the sword," the man of peace finds that " the 
soft answer turneth away wrath," and " the meek 
inherit the earth." By subduing his own fierce 



158 



THE EIGHT WAT. 



nature, he becomes more like God, breathes 
more of the atmosphere of heaven ; and by his 
benevolence, gentleness, and meekness, shows to 
all around that he is on his way to the realms 
of eternal peace. 

" How beautifully falls 
From human lips that blessed word forgive ! 
Forgiveness ! 't is the attribute of God, — 
The sound which openeth heaven ; renews again 
On earth lost Eden's faded bloom, and flings 
Hope's halcyon halo o'er the waste of life. 
Thrice happy he whose heart has been so schooled 
In the meek lessons of humanity 
That he can give it utterance : it imparts 
Celestial grandeur to the human soul, 
And maketh man an angel." 



SEVENTH COMMANDMENT. 169 



ym. 

SEVENTH COMMANDMENT. 

THOU SHALT NOT COMMIT ADULTEEY. 

" Why, Doctor, how could you use sucL. a word ?" 
asked a lady, whom the great English moralist, 
Dr. Johnson, had horrified by the employment of 
a term which is sometimes used in other senses 
than the one then intended. " Madam," replied 
the Doctor, serene and sarcastic, " How could I 
know what you were thinking about ?" 

The significance of words, and the force of al- 
lusions, depend much upon the mental and moral 
state of the listener. There are those upon whom 
the broadest hints are lost, and the most palpably 
double-meaning phrases make no impression, ex- 
cept in the better sense. And there are others 
to whose restless imaginations ordinary lan- 
guage, and the commonest incidents, are sug- 
gestive of evil thoughts. The one class are like 
a fair plant of the meadow, from whose leaves 
the rain drops roll, and leave not a particle of 
water behind. The others resemble some green, 
slimy, noisome pool, which swallows up in its 
own pollution the clear crystals of snow which 
fall upon its surface. " To the pwe all things 
wre^v/re^'' In the present discussion, it is hoped 
that all at which the most refined deHcacy would 



160 



THE EIGHT WAY. 



take alarm lias been avoided, and that tlie most 
fastidious will encounter nothing offensive. 

Still, there is no disposition to withhold truth 
that needs to be spoken, nor to " shun to dedanre 
all the coimsel of OodP It would seem that this 
commandment has been, by acclamation, voted 
out of the circle of subjects which may be pub- 
licly discussed, and that at least one of God's 
laws, binding upon all, is of such a character 
that it cannot be mentioned in God's own house. 
Whatever may be the scruples of that sham 
modesty which covers its face lest its lack of 
blushes should be detected, I feel no hesitation 
in attempting a lecture upon the subject before 
us, hoping that I shall not offend true delicacy 
by anything gross or needlessly explicit. 

Without further preface, let us contemplate 
the nature of the institution in whose defence 
this precept is set forth. 

I. The nattire of marriage. 

The original design of the Creator was, and is 
still, that " emry man should have his own wife^ 
a/nd every woma/n her own husboMdP " He that 
made them at the teginnrng^"^ created but the 
pair, and declared, " they twain shall le one 
fleshP The covenant must bind two only, and 
the two shall be one. 

1. They must be united in affection. 

Each must be such a person as the other would 
choose as a friend. Our attachments spring from 



SEVENTH COMMANDMENT. 161 

our inherently social nature ; but among those 
of our own sex we become attached to some 
more readily than to others. The reason for this 
must be sought for in incidental differences of 
mind, character, person, and manners. There 
are those to whom we, at the first glance, 
feel a friendly drawing; and there are others 
of whom the first sight repels. The latter may 
not design to be distant toward us ; they may 
desire to conciliate, yet the contrary effect is 
seen and felt by both parties, while almost per- 
fect strangers. It is true, that long companion- 
ship will almost invariably create some degree 
of attachment even among those of dissimilar 
characters ; but it is also true, that in the forma- 
tion of our friendships the principle spoken of 
has a powerful influence ; and that, under cir- 
cumstances outwardly similar, we become at- 
tached to some persons more readily and more 
strongly than to others. 

This same principle exerts its influence in at- 
tachments formed between individuals of differ- 
ent sex. Therefore it becomes the duty of those 
about to unite in the marriage covenant to as- 
certain clearly whether they possess that relative 
congeniahty of mind and manners, that fitness 
in modes of thought and feeling, which will 
render enduring friendship possible. Strong 
affection is a prominent part of the divine plan 
of marriage. This alone will enable the twain 
to bear sorrow, and adversity, and old age, to- 



162 



THE KIGHT WAT. 



gether, and tune their lives into a harmony which 
knows no discordant note. This is the enduring 
love which each plights to the other in the sol- 
emn ceremony whereby the two become united ; 
and woe to those who, from cold policy, the de- 
sire of wealth or high connexions, are led to 
make declarations that are false, and assume 
vows that can never be fuMUed in the spirit 
thereof. Such a course, in either party, is un- 
generous, treacherous, and, in most cases, fatal 
to the happiness of both. 

True marriage is where the two are so united 
that each cherishes for the other a stronger at- 
tachment than for any other human being ; where 
each shares, with the whole heart, in the other's 
weal or woe — and thus augments the joys and 
lessens the sorrows of existence. This is the 
heaven-born affection which 

" Eenews again 
On earth lost Eden's faded bloom, and flings 
Hope's halcyon halo o'er the waste of life." 

It outlasts the joyous spring-time of youth ; and, 
like the pine of the ITorth, it spreads its un- 
fading verdure over the piled up snows of winter. 
The ills of .our earthly pilgrimage cannot destroy 
it. Many waters cannot quench it, neither the 
floods drown it. It clings like the ivy to the oak, 
through heat and through cold, through sunshine 
and through storm ; and, when the beauty and 
glory of the forest are fallen, it spreads its faith- 



SEVENTH COMMANDMENT. 163 



ful, sheltering leaves over tlieir grave, and 
moulders into kindred dust. 

2. The marriage relation demands unity of 
will and of purpose. 

Among beings endowed with different degrees 
of reason, and at times feehng the promptings 
of conflicting tastes, prejudices, and passions, the 
most intimate friends will view things in differ- 
ent lights, and disagree in their opinions of what 
is wisest and most desirable. How then shall 
the family circle be kept from becoming the 
arena of fretful dispute, deep diplomacy, or open 
quarrels? And when will comes in colHsion 
with will, how shall a fierce struggle for the 
mastery be prevented? God foresaw the dan- 
ger, and Inspiration has provided the reme- 
dy : " Wives, submit yoii/r selves unto your own 
husbands, as wfito the LordP " Husba/rhds, 
love your wives, even as Christ also loved the 
Church.''^ 

By the appointment of J ehovah, the husband 
is made the head of the little realm. The wife 
must obey her husband, not because he is neces- 
sarily wiser, or better, but because he rules by 
divine right. To prevent angry contests for the 
supremacy, the whole question has been put to 
rest by the enactment of a general law. In this 
mode peace is secured, and the happiness of both 
parties promoted. 'Eo injury is done the weaker 
sex by this arrangement. If the husband is dis- 
posed to be tyrannical, the same disposition would 



i 



164 



THE RIGHT WAY. 



show itself if no law had been given, and verj 
few are disposed to play the tyrant till provoked 
to it by some foolish attempt, on the part of their 
wives, to govern them. If the wife possess, as 
she sometimes does, more intellect, and better 
judgment than her hnsband, she will find her 
superior wisdom more available for good with- 
out a contest. Her advice, suggested with gen- 
tleness of voice and manner, will accomplish 
more than stormy commands, enforced by a flam- 
ing face and emphatic twitches of the head. 
The woman, it is true, may be tied to a tyrant 
and a fool ; but if she has been so unwise as to 
marry such a man, let her not give an additional 
proof of weakness and folly by seeking to thrust 
him from his place at the head of the family. 
If, indeed, he should command her to disobey 
God, she may refuse to break the higher law ; 
but, except in this case, she is commanded to be 
" in subjection to her own husbomdP 

3. The marriage relation demands unity of in- 
terests. 

A great many of the difficulties which occur 
between man and man originate in clashing 
pecuniary interests and plans of gain. That evils 
of this nature may not intrude into the domestic 
circle, and mar the quiet happiness of home, it 
is best that there should be but one purse, as 
well as one heart and one mind. A woman 
ought never to intrust her happiness to one 
whom she is afraid to trust with her property. 



SEVENTH COMMANDMENT. 165 



And, after marriage, lier industry and economy 
ought to be exercised, not in gaining money to 
put away in some secret hoard, but to provide 
increased means of doing good to her own house- 
hold and those around her. To the husband, 
the thought that the rewards of his energy and 
tact make equal provision for his wife and him- 
self, should sweeten all his toils, and shed a 
cheering ray upon even the perplexities and an- 
noyances of business life. 

But when each has pecuniary interests and 
projects in which the other has no share, it can 
hardly fail to lead to debates and disputes about 
money matters, and finally to alienation of affec- 
tion. In many cases it produces the most in- 
tense selfishness in both parties. Every item of 
the wife's expenditure for herself becomes a sub- 
ject for profound consideration and dogged ar- 
gument. She, for instance, will make purchases 
as her fancy or her comforts demand, and will 
call upon her husband to pay her bills. He will 
mutter and complain, and perhaps tell her that 
if she will buy such and such articles she must 
pay for them herself. Each becomes angry, and 
accuses the other of wrong. She declares that 
he is too mean and niggardly to be tolerated 
among decent people ; and he replies, in wrath, 
that she is extravagant enough to ruin Croesus 
when spending other people's money, but that she 
takes good care of her own. And thus it goes on, 
getting worse and worse, till at last the two misers 



166 



THE EIGHT WAY. 



grow intolerable to each, other, as well as to 
everybody else, and separate. 

4. This nnion of affection and of life is de- 
signed to be permanent. 

A complete separation is not to be bad '-'-for 
every cause^'' but only on account of specific 
crime. Matthew v, 32 ; xix, 9. The good of the 
parties themselves requires that the marriage 
bond be looked upon as sacred, and well-nigh in- 
dissoluble. This will appear at once, if we glance 
at the evils which must result from making the 
covenant one that may be dissolved by the con- 
sent of both parties, or repudiated at will by 
either. As the tie could be so easily sundered, 
it is evident that, by many, it would be assumed 
with little anxiety or forethought. The giddy 
and the heedless would be still more disposed to 
" marry in haste " if there was no danger of their 
being obliged to " repent at leisure," and the in- 
constant would break the contract with as little 
concern as the traveller parts from the acquaint- 
ance of a day. After marriage, if each was at 
bberty to leave the other at any moment, then 
each would be liable to be deserted at any mo- 
ment, perhaps under circumstances rendering 
after life a scene of hopeless toil and misery. K 
the consent of both parties should suffice to ter- 
minate the union, then a brutal husband, who 
had taken a fancy to some one else's property or 
good looks, would drive his wife to an unwilling 
consent, by deliberate cruelty and abuse. Fam- 



• 



SEVENTH COMMANDMENT. 167 



ilies would be broken up, and little innocent cbil- 
dren in a moment deprived forever of a father's 
strong protection, or a mother's tender care. 

It must be remembered, too, that the law must 
be made not only for the pure, the generous, 
and the wise, but for all ; and, among the rest, 
"/bT* the ungodly cmd for sinners^ for unholy 
(md jprofane^^ for the worst of mankind as well 
as the best. If then the laws of God and man 
permit the marriage tie to be formed and broken 
at will, marriage would soon have no exist- 
ence, and man would sink to the level of the 
brute. 

Those in authority, therefore, should beware 
lest, by their unauthorized legal traditions, they 
" make the commcmdment of God of none effect-^ 
Where matrimony has been lawfully contracted, 
no courts nor legislatures have a right to annul 
the contract, except for the cause before men- 
tioned. To grant a complete divorce on account 
of "wilful, continued, and obstinate desertion 
for the term of five years," is whoUy unauthorized 
by inspiration, and the magistrate who lends his 
influence to effect anything of the kind, no mat- 
ter how well he is paid for it, disregards the 
commands of high Heaven. "Where the parties 
will not live together, the civil power need not 
attempt to compel them ; it may, in some cases, 
even order a division of property and of offspring ; 
but in the absence of the overt crime, no power 
on earth can set them free, so as to make it Scrip- 



168 



THE EIGHT WAY. 



tural for either of them to marry a third person. 
This is " the law and the testimony ^ 

II. The bekeftts of the maheiage msTiTunoN. 

1. Marriage promotes personal happiness. 

There is no disguising the fact that many mar- 
ried people are not happy, but what is the cause 
of their unhappiness ? The fanlt is in themselves, 
and not in the relation which they sustain. K a 
man or a woman be weak in intellect, and strong 
in evil passions, envious, jealous, suspicious, ma- 
lignant, and stubborn, what rational hope of hap- 
piness can such have, whether married or single ? 
When two individuals of this description marry 
each other, it would be marvellous indeed if the 
wedding ceremony should transform them into 
angels, and place them in paradise. And when 
a narrow-minded, avaricious young man, falls in 
love with the possessions of some wealthy Jezebel, 
and solemnly vows to cleave to the owner, for 
the sake of the property, what right has he to 
complain if he finds the wife a worse encum- 
brance than he bargained for ? And if a roman- 
tic Miss is smitten with the pretty hair and nice 
hands of some smooth villain who has art enough 
to hide his viUany beneath winning smiles and 
soft mannere ; if she will not be warned, but wil- 
fully places hei^elf in the power of a man desti- 
tute of every good principle and every noble 
feeling, who wonders if she very soon finds cause 
for bitter repentance ? Marriage will never reu- 



SEYENTH COMMANDMENT. 169 



der all liappy, till all are lovable, wise, and pure 
in heart. 

Nevertheless, marriage in itself tends to happi- 
ness. To be made happier or better, man must 
become attached to some object. His nature is 
seldom elevated bj cultivating his power of 
hating. In order to be ennobled he must love. 
They who are surrounded by the tender associ- 
ations and strong attachment which create Jiome^ 
dwell in an atmosphere which breathes happi- 
ness and peace. The hermit, dreaming in his 
desert cave; the monk, performing his endless 
devotions in his gloomy, soHtary cell ; the pillar 
saint, on his cold pedestal, far up above the sym- 
pathies of his fellow-men, know not half so much 
of heaven as he who is surrounded by family 
and friends, and spends his days in serving God, 
and doing good to him who is " the image and 
glory of GodP 

Life, it is true, has its sorrows. The husband 
or the wife may have defects ; children may prove 
wayward and ungrateful, and thus the still joys 
of home be marred. Death may enter, and those 
loved most fondly be borne away to silence and 
the grave. But even they who sorrow for the 
dead are blessed above those whose chilled hearts 
have none for whom to care. It is better even 
to weep than to be locked up in a soHtary ego- 
tism that knows no generous feeling. To mourn 
is not always unmingled bitterness. The grief 
that laments the honoured dead, the tear that 
8 



170 



THE EIGHT WAY. 



flows in sympathy for the woes of the living, is 
a source of sad hut purest pleasure. Joy arises 
from mingled love and sorrow, as heaven's glori- 
ous arch is born of the sunlight and the storm. 
With all the varied ills of life, they are most 
happy whose religious and social affections are 
most cultivated, and who are most attached to 
the inmates of home, and to their great Friend 
above. Marriage, which creates home, and lends 
it all its charms, may therefore be justly deemed 
promotive of personal happiness. 

2. Home influences are invaluable in the train- 
ing of the young. 

The utter ignorance, weakness, and helpless- 
ness of infancy, and the slow progress of youth, 
have sometimes been spoken of as if they were 
the shame of man. They are sometimes con- 
trasted with the wiser instincts and the stronger 
frame of the young brute, which, when its age 
is numbered but by hours, can flee from its ene- 
mies, and in a few days is able to find its sub- 
sistence in the green meadow and the gliding 
stream. But this very difference, which seems 
at first so disadvantageous to man, is, in fact, his 
salvation. Instinct points, with unerring wisdom, 
to the few things which are needful for the brute 
nature, and when these are attained, brute perfec- 
tion is attained. The brute has no moral suscepti- 
bilities, no future of eternal good or ill dependent 
upon action here. But man is " the image (md glory 
of Ood?'' He is endowed with reason, imagina- 



SEVENTH COMMANDMENT. 171 

tion, memory, conscience, accountability. He 
is created, not for time, but for eternity. That 
lie may attain the vast heigbts of wbicb be is 
capable, unnumbered facts must be learned, un- 
numbered tbougbts revolved, and a character 
formed by ten thousand accretions of experience 
and reflection. The long period of helpless de- 
pendence, therefore, is the wise device of Provi- 
dence to cause man to pass through a pupilage 
befitting, in some degree, an existence that shall 
fashion eternity. How rapidly children gain 
ideas, and how slowly they grow in stature ! But 
suppose physical growth to be quickened into 
brute rapidity, while mental advancement re- 
mains the same, and what is the result? The 
grown-up child of a year or two would be just 
as helpless as ever, but tenfold more difficult to 
manage and guide, because of stronger passions 
and maturer strength; and he must have his 
keepers, like an idiot or a madman. Our Creator 
has therefore placed the infant in the parents' 
hands, helpless, dependent — every department of 
its mental and moral nature ready to receive im- 
pressions — its very being ready to be moulded at 
will. To whom, then, shall this mass of yielding 
material be intrusted? Where can the new- 
born immortal be trained aright, except at home, 
in the domestic circle ? There the father's strong 
affection and the mother's tender love shall dis- 
til upon it as the dew of Hermon. The better 
part of the youthful nature is cultivated ; filial 



1T2 



THE KIGHT WAT. 



affection is created by imceasing proofs of the 
parents' regard, and the seeds of instruction fall 
into the good gronnd thns prepared for its recep- 
tion. The Spartan plan of education may suffice 
to train warriors; but the influences of home^ 
which the marriage institution creates, alone will 
make men. 

3. The refining influences of home life pro- 
mote the well-being of society in general. 

The two sexes were designed to admire each 
other, and to be desirous of each other's good 
opinion. This mutual regard exerts a powerful 
influence upon manners and morals, upon every 
branch of character and conduct. All own its 
power, except the victims of vice who have gone 
down the fathomless depths of hopeless shame. 
This influence, too, is powerful for good. The 
imprisoned nun, shut out from the courtesies and 
aflections of social life, loses the inborn graces 
of her nature. The monk, wasting his years 
in his cell, with his beads in his hand, and a 
mouldy skull before him, becomes a narrow- 
minded bigot, void of the finer feelings of hu- 
manity, if not earthly and sensual. The hfe of 
the soldier and the sailor, for like reasons, has a 
deleterious tendency, especially upon the young. 
ISTotliing can compensate the loss of home influ- 
ence. The companionship of friends, of both 
sexes and of various ages, parents, brothers, sis- 
ters, and other relatives, as well as of acquaint- 
ances and neighbours, has a tendency to form a 



SEVENTH COMMANDMENT. 173 

iLumane, genial character, susceptible of all the 
finer emotions, gentle, sympathetic, generous, 
quick to protect the innocent, and defend tlfe 
right. 

Marriage, then, without which home, or home 
influences, cannot exist, tends to humanize indi- 
viduals, purify society, and elevate the race. 
And these effects follow in the proportion that 
the institution retains the form it had " m the 'be- 
ginning^'' and its laws are held sacred. Yirtue 
dechnes wherever there is a departure from the 
original arrangements of Jehovah, whether it be 
the polygamy of the savage, the brutishness of 
socialism, the licentiousness of Paris and Rome, 
or the facile divorces of some of our own sover- 
eign states. 

8. Marriage promotes patriotism, industry, in- 
tegrity, and all the various virtues connected 
with public welfare. 

The rewards of virtue, and the ill effects of 
vice, come with greater weight upon those who 
have others to stand or fall with them. The 
plaudits of the wise and good are doubly dear to 
him whose commendations fall like sweet music 
upon the ears of cherished friends. And he 
must be a monster indeed, who, however reck- 
less of his own welfare, can, without remorse, 
drag down his innocent family into the dark pool 
of infamy and ruin into which vice or crime 
would plunge him. Many a man has been led 
to stop in his evil ways, and retrace his steps, by 



174 



THE RIGHT WAY. 



the thonglit that there are loved ones at home, 
whose fate is bound up with his own. 

For the same reason that the husband and the 
father, if not destitute of natural affection, is held 
back from overt crime, he is deterred from in- 
dolence and prodigality. Upon his abihtj in 
business his family depend for the supply of 
their wants. By industry and prudence, he may 
secure the means, not merely for providing for 
the daily need of his children, but of bestowing 
upon them the inestimable benefits of a thorough 
education, and an advantageous start in life. He 
may welcome his parents to his plenteous board, 
and give them a secure retreat from the chill- 
ing grasp of penury, when old age has whitened 
their locks and palsied their frames. Or, by 
his strict attention to his finances, that care with- 
out which even the gold of the Pactolus would 
soon be exhausted, he may transmit to his 
children the inheritance received from his fa- 
thers. 

Thus the attachments which marriage creates, 
prompt the active industry and thrift which fill 
the land with wealth and plenty. The affection- 
ate father becomes the valuable citizen. He 
looks after the morals of his neighbourhood. He 
labours to close every tempter's den, lest his sons 
may be lured therein, and perish. He seeks to 
silence the voice of blasphemy and ribaldry, lest 
the foul words may fall upon the ear of his 
daughters. He desires public peace, that the 



SEVENTH COMMANDMENT. 



175 



quiet of home may not be disturbed. He has 
too much at stake to engage in lawless riots and 
reckless revolutions. He desires tbe perpetuity 
of every good institution, that bis cbildren may 
enjoy its blessings. I^or are tbe benevolent af- 
fections which are exercised at home, dormant 
when he goes abroad. They prompt him to take 
a deeper interest in all that pertains to the wel- 
fare of those around him. Thus the conservant 
influences of home spread in widening circles, 
and the light and heat of a thousand hearths 
blend together and fill the air with radiance, 
and the land with warmth. 

HI. Sins against this law. 

This part of the subject I shall pass over rapid- 
ly, for a twofold reason. Much space has been 
devoted to other parts of the discussion, and here 
minute details are neither needful nor proper. 
The precept is aimed at all the various sins which 
spring from the evil heart of the fallen race, in 
connexion with the relation which the sexes sus- 
tain to each other. In hinting at some of these, 
permit me to take a wide range. It is hardly 
probable that the abandoned of either sex will 
ever vouchsafe these lectures more than a pass- 
ing glance, for sin shudders at its own deformity, 
and therefore hates the light. If I find readers, 
I take it for granted that they will be the virtu- 
ous and the pure, rather than the corrupt and the 
reckless. I shall therefore discuss at most length 



176 



THE RIGHT WAY. 



errors and sins, the guilt of whicli is less obvious 
and disgusting. 

1. Gross crimes, which are violations of even 
human law. These need not be discussed or 
enumerated. 

2. Divorces, not sanctioned by the divine law. 
Revelation declares one specified crime to be 

the only valid ground of divorce, and if a com- 
plete separation is decreed by the civil power, 
in cases where this crime has not been commit- 
ted, the higher law is violated. Man has no 
right to make regulations which abrogate the 
laws of God, and a divorce which the divine law 
does not justify is null and void from the begin- 
ning. 

3. The marriage contract may be formed, and 
its solemn vows be pronounced, under circum- 
stances which render those vows falsehood, de- 
ception, perjury itself. 

We have seen that unity of heart, will, and 
interests, is necessary in order to body forth the 
true idea of marriage. Every one to whom 
matrimonial offers are made has a right to pre- 
sume that they are made in a right sense, espe- 
cially when they are accompanied with protesta- 
tions of the deepest and purest affection. 'Now, 
suppose that one of the parties of a marriage 
union feels utter invincible dislike to the other, 
and yet, for the sake of wealth, or a home, or 
position in society, makes or courts advances, and 
professes a regard that has no existence, utters 



SEVENTH COMMANDMENT. 177 

VOWS that are delusive from the beginning, and 
draws the other into a compact, which, instead 
of the silken tie of love, is the corroding, crush- 
ing chain of bondage. The cheat will soon be dis- 
covered, and the deceiver and the deceived will 
alike be miserable. In such a case as this, it is 
evident that the one who acted in good faith has 
been wronged, deeply, wilfully, irreparably. A 
blight is breathed upon the heart ; the serpent 
and the withering curse have entered Eden, and 
its charms are gone forever. Those, therefore, 
who are meditating wedded life, should feel 
bound in justice and in all honour to employ no 
deception of any kind. Let them hold out no 
false Kghts like pirate wreckers upon the ocean 
shore, who lure on the mariner to his destruction, 
that they may riot upon the rich spoils strewn 
in ruin upon the beach. The gold and silver 
gathered thus, " a/ire camkered^ cmd the rust there- 
of shall eat the flesh " of him whose hand grasped 
them dishonourably, " as it werefi/ireP True love 
is a holy, generous, unselfish emotion, which 
looks to the welfare of the loved object, rather 
than at self. ISTo one can honourably simulate 
this where it does not exist. ITo one has a right 
to entangle another in a marriage which must, 
of necessity, be an unhappy one. 

4. Matrimonial engagements should not be 
made in haste, nor, when once entered into, 
broken without good reason. 

As a general thing, it is not well to form con- 
8* 



1Y8 



THE EIGHT WAY. 



tracts which are to be fulfilled after the lapse of 
a long period of time. Matrimonial engage- 
ments made too long before-hand, are not al- 
ways fulfilled. In the interim, there may be 
changes of character, new circumstances may 
arise, new acquaintances and stronger prefer- 
ences may be formed, and the alliance, even the 
distant prospect of which threw the youth of 
seventeen into a perfect rapture of love and 
poetry, may appear undesirable to the eye of 
twenty-three. To break off an engagement of 
this kind is generally painful to one party, and 
discreditable to the other, perhaps painful and 
discreditable to both. The hand that strikes 
down, at one fell blow, the dearest hopes and 
most fondly cherished dreams of one whose faith- 
ful affection has never wavered, must be the 
hand of cruel wrong. And in every broken vow 
of the kind there is wrong somewhere, some 
lack of wisdom in the formation of the compact, 
or some lack of honour in the disruption. Either 
it ought not to have been formed, or else it ought 
never to have been broken. Let all whom it 
may concern, then, beware lest they wantonly 
and wickedly destroy the happiness of others, 
and bring over their own a cloud that shall never 
be dispelled. Form the compact, if at all, de- 
liberately, wisely, honourably, and deem the 
promise as sacred, as irrevocable, as if the pub- 
lic vows were already uttered. 

6. Coquetry, or a deliberate effort to gain the 



SEVENTH COMMANDMENT. 



1T9 



regards of the other sex, merely to gratify vanity^ 
is a thing scorned by every noble nature. 

Coquetry, in the proper sense of the term, 
" wanteth not sin,^^ It is compounded of selfish- 
ness, vanity, and fraud. Yery few persons of 
either sex will allow themselves to go very far in 
their attentions or regard, unless they receive, 
what they, at leasts construe into encouragement, 
given by word or manner. But a coquette of 
either sex will encourage those of the other to fancy 
that they are the objects of special regard, when 
the whole farce is played for the mean amuse- 
ment of the principal performer. A young man 
will show a young woman persevering attentions 
which he knows will be construed as declarative 
of strong preference. She, unsuspicious of de- 
ception, gives up her heart to the sway of the 
attachment which she believes is so ardently re- 
turned. She declines the overtures of honour- 
able young men whom she respects, and some 
one of whom she might prefer, if she were not 
blind to all except the fancied good qualities of 
the vain coxcomb who is amusing himself at her 
expense. Thus her days glide away in an en- 
chanting dream of love, till the young man, tired 
of his prolonged effort to delude, turns away in 
pursuit of a new subject for the same process. 
Tlie deserted one wakes in a moment from her 
dream of bliss, and sheds bitter tears of shame 
and agony at the thought that all this while she 
has been but the sport of the heartless and the 



180 



THE EIGHT WAY. 



unprincipled. And by this one act of a vain 
fool, she, though guiltless of all evil, may be 
doomed to spend her life alone. 

Sometimes the lady is the deceiver. She dis- 
penses her smiles on all around her ; and man- 
ages so skilfully as to persuade each of her 
admirers that he is verily the favoured one. But 
on his pressing his suit, and thus rendering ex- 
planation unavoidable, he is very coolly told that 
his vanity has misled him ; that she had no idea, 
till this moment, that he was indulging the hopes 
which he now expresses, and that their acquaint- 
ance had better cease. And the now enlightened 
youth retires from her presence, alternately de- 
nouncing the whole sex in general as a set of 
vain flirts, without either brains or conscience, 
and then congratulating himself on not being 
tied for life to this one in particular. 

The way of honour and of right is plain. Let 
the young be guided in these matters by the 
principles of Scripture morality. Let them not 
deceive each other. To lead on one of the other 
sex to the nurture and the acknowledgment of 
love that must be vain, is not right ; it is not 
generous nor just. If those who are endowed 
by nature with the power to interest and please, 
employ that power merely to gratify a vanity 
which is regardless of the happiness of others, and 
looks only at self, they are making poor use of 
what God has given. It is contrary to all virtue, to 
all honourable feeling, and it is an utter perver- 



SEVENTH COMMANDMENT. 181 



sion of the good intended to grow out of the 
relations of the sexes. There is one consolation 
for those who have been thus meanlj victimized. 
A person so destitute of all generous principles 
and right feehngs, would be verj unsuitable for 
the long companionship of wedded life ; and the 
keenness of momentary disappointment is not so 
hard to bear as the deep disgust and endless re- 
gret of ill-matched marriage. 

lY. How TO GUAED AGAINST THE SINS PROHIBITED 
IN THIS COMMANDMENT. 

1. Keep the imagination pure. 

Marsias dreamed that he cut the throat of the 
tyrant Dionysius, and publicly told his dream. 
The tyrant condemned him to death, on the plea 
that he would not dream at night of those things 
which never entered his mind by day. Dionysius 
was cruel and unjust in his sentence ; and yet he 
had some reason to be suspicious of a man who was 
haunted by such visions. But if he had dis- 
covered, in some mysterious way, that Marsias 
was in the constant habit of revolving the mur- 
derous deed in his own mind, the tyrant would 
have had still greater reason to be suspicious of 
him, though he had never breathed his thoughts 
in mortal ear. 

Men are seldom betrayed into the commission 
of crimes that never occurred to their minds 
before. People of slow fancy may sneer at air- 
castles ; but they forget that every structure of 



182 



THE EIGHT WAY. 



magnitude is built in the air, over and over, be- 
fore it is actually erected on the earth. Thus 
the crimes that men commit are generally acted 
over in the imagination many times before the 
deed is done. For instance : a clerk in some 
warehouse, who has had large sums of money 
passing through his hands, and has never been 
suspected of dishonesty, is found guilty of ab- 
stracting some hundreds or thousands of dollars. 
The charge and the proof come as sudden and 
as unexpected as rain from the blue sky ; and 
yet, in truth, the process has been a long one. 
The idea first occurred to him that the thing could 
be easily done. Without the smallest intention 
of being unfaithful to his employer, he allowed 
his mind to dwell upon the apparent ease of the 
act ; the probability of its passing unnoticed and 
undetected, and the safest modes of hiding the 
spoil, and of using it in such a manner as to give 
no clue to the offender. By this mental process, 
the instinctive hoiTor with which he fii'st viewed 
the crime, wore gradually away, and thoughts 
of dishonesty became familiar to him. His evil 
fancy was especially active when the sum within 
his reach was larger than usual, or when he felt 
especial desire for money to supply his wants, or 
purchase his pleasures. Thus he went on, per- 
haps for years, till at last, in an evil horn-, the 
intangible shapes of the imagination were bodied 
forth into actual crime, and fancy became fact. 
It is generally thus in regai'd to transgressions 



SEVENTH COMMAKDMENT. 183 



of every hue. The thought occurs ; it is de- 
tained before the mind ; it impresses itself upon 
the fancy, and takes its place in the memory. 
The imaginary scene is acted over, till horror 
and disgust are removed by familiarity ; and 
then, while some temptation presses more ur- 
gently than usual, the deed is done, innocence 
is sacrificed on some vile altar, and coward shame 
takes up its abode in the soul. 

Yoimg men are often warned to keep their 
feet far from the haunts of vice ; but I would 
here warn youth of both sexes, to keep their 
minds from becoming the haunt of vicious 
thoughts. We must not forget that familiarity 
with sin, by means of the fancy, is as demoral- 
izing as famiharity with the actual sight, possibly 
more so, since fancy can paint a picture more 
alluring than the reality. Let those, then, who 
would preserve their innocence, beware how 
.they grow familiar with vice, in the vivid scenes 
of the creative fancy. 

2. Let the thoughts uttered, and the words 
spoken, be pm-e. 

" Out of the ahund<m<ie of the hea/rt the mouth 
speaketh^^'' saith the voice of Lispiration. But 
the tongue also reacts upon the heart, and in- 
creases its abundance. To express an idea, ren- 
ders that idea more striking in our conceptions, 
and impresses it more deeply upon the memoiy. 
To express passion renders it more intense ; and 
he that can control his language, can generally 



184 THE EIGHT WAY. 

govern his passions : " If (my mem offend not m 
wordy the same is a perfect mcm^ cmd able also to 
hridle the whole hodyP The Apostle James 
also declares, that " the tongue defileth the whole 
hody^ OMd setteth on fire the course of nature.''^ 
To talk out the thoughts and desires of corrupt 
nature, increases the activity and strength of that 
corruption. 

Therefore, let all conscientious persons watch 
their own words, remembering that for even the 
idlest of them they shall " give account at the 
day of judgment.'''' ISTever let the hps utter a 
careless word that would summon a blush to 
the cheek of purity, l^ever, in the inmost se- 
crecy of familiar companionship, indulge in a 
style of conversation that would disgust the vir- 
tuous, if proclaimed upon the house-tops. K 
you indulge the habit of uttering indecent jests, 
or of relating immodest stories, while in company 
corrupt enough to laugh at your foul wit, you 
will debase your own minds, fill the imagination 
with scenes of wickedness, and store your mem- 
ory with thought and language which you would 
afterward gladly forget, but will not be able. 
In the most refined and virtuous society, words 
will rise to your lips that you would not permit 
to escape for worlds. And perhaps years after- 
ward, when disease lays its strong hand upon 
your frame ; when your pulse throbs wildly, 
and delirium usurps the throne of reason, 
you will fancy yourself once more with your 



SEVENTH COMMANDMENT. 185 



loose companions, again you will laugh with 
shallow mirth, and utter the reviving ribaldry 
of your youth ; every modest person within 
hearing will be shocked ; and though better lan- 
guage may return with returning health, yet the 
obscenity which you have spoken will cleave to 
you with an indelible stain ; and with many, the 
freedom which you usually maintain from this 
disgusting sin, will be deemed merely the whiten- 
ed outside of a sepulchre, ''full of all unclecm- 
ness."^^ Beware, then, how you store your mem- 
ory with immodest language and immodest ideas. 
Beware how you train your mind to watch with 
hungry ear and eye for something to gratify a 
base habit. If you train your thoughts to flow 
in evil channels, you will at some unlucky mo- 
ment reveal the current of the ideas which you 
love, and crimson your face with burning, wither- 
ing shame. 

Unchaste language is wrong, for a twofold 
reason. Its tendency is to corrupt both speaker 
and hearer. It corrupts the fancy, by filhng its 
field of view with unclean images. It corrupts 
the memory, by adding to its stores a festering 
mass of rottenness. It stains the soul, by making 
the entrance of impure ideas easy, and their dis- 
mission difficult. It tends to produce that most 
wi'etched, degraded state of the mind, when the 
commonest words receive new meanings, and 
every remark, upon whatever topic, suggests 
only indecency and filth. To an inflamed eye, 



186 



THE EIGHT WAY. 



every object around appears clothed in colours 
which do not belong to it, but spring from the 
disease ; and to a debased mind, every sight and 
sound are made to feed the hunger that craves 
impurity. 

Suffer me to specify one mode in which evil 
is done. Let each sex beware of calling in ques- 
tion the virtue of the other. Much may be 
known of a person's character, by the estimate 
which he is fond of placing upon the virtue of 
those around him. If you hear a trader declare 
that no man is honest, you may set it down as a 
certainty, that at all events he is not ; or else he 
would know one honest man, and could not have 
uttered his sweeping condemnation. If you hear 
a man descanting upon the universal lack of vir- 
tue, you may consider his. opinion a mere infer- 
ence from his own personal deficiency. And 
if he asserts that there is no real virtue in the 
female sex, you will not be far astray, if you 
suspect that his conclusions are drawn from the 
character of those with whom he is best ac- 
quainted. 

But whoever endeavours to convince any 
young man that virtue and truth are exceeding 
rare, is taking a course which tends powerfully 
to undermine that young man's better principles 
Yice can create no odium where all are vicious ; 
and if there be no virtue in the community, vice 
can bring little shame with it. To persuade 
youth that religion is but hypocrisy, and modesty 



SEVENTH COMMANDMENT. 187 

but a sham, a flimsy disguise adopted for selfisli 
purposes, is one of the most dangerous and most 
destructive temptations of the devil. He who is 
caught in this net, soon begins to think that 
there is no necessity for his being better than 
other people. The allurements of sin, strength- 
ened by his false impressions, prove resistless, 
and he follows them " as an ox goeth to the 
slaughter y In the firm persuasion that all would 
be found as corrupt as himself, if the truth were 
known, he riots in ruinous transgressions, with- 
out shame and without remorse. 

3. Avoid evil companions. 

The young are sometimes thrown into the so- 
ciety of those whose manners are agreeable, and 
their conversation sprightly, but who are dull in 
conscience and loose in morals. They tell of 
wickedness and feel no shame, and with a gay 
smile rehearse their experience in sin. Those 
who listen with willing ear to these narrations, 
and thus become familiar with the language 
and the thought of evil, fall, in many cases, an 
easy prey to the tempter. Though they should 
take no part in the debasing conversation, yet, 
by listening to it, their purity of mind is destroy- 
ed. No one can take fire into his bosom and 
not be burned, or handle pitch and not be de- 
filed. Young man, if you have ac(|uaintances 
of this description, discard them at once, if you 
would not die as the fool diethP It would be 
far less dangerous to walk hand in hand with 



188 



THE EIGHT WAT. 



the loathsome leper, whose flesh is dropping 
from his bones ; it would be far less dangerous 
to repose on the same conch with the blackened 
corpse of one who has died with the plague, than 
to breathe, day after day, the poisoned atmos- 
phere of lascivious conversation. The one can 
kin the body, but the other may cast both soul 
and body into hell. Under the contiaual effect 
of bad precept and worse example, the proba- 
bility is that conscience will be silenced, vice 
will assume new charms, and the tempted youth, 
like a bird upon which the serpent has fixed its 
glittering eye, will feel more and more the influ- 
ence of the deadly fascination, till all power to 
resist is gone, and he drops into the fangs of the 
destroyer. 

If a young lady knows the character of a young 
man to be bad, and yet, from vanity, tolerates 
his presence, and suffers him to thrust himself 
into her society, and treats him as courteously as 
if his character were without spot, she must not 
complain if her reputation is involved, perhaps 
with too much reason, in the odium which at- 
taches to his name. Those who cease to respect 
themselves, soon lose the respect of others. 
"When young ladies smile upon the smooth- 
tongued villain who has stained his coward soul 
with the ruin of innocence ; when they court the 
attentions of the wealthy but remorseless liber- 
tine ; they must not think it hard if the best por- 
tion of the other sex look upon them with dis- 



SEVENTH COMMANDMENT. 189 

gust and contempt. There is no safety for either 
the virtue or the good name of those who can 
tolerate the society of the licentious. The very 
fact that they seek the notice of such, is proof 
that with them vanity and self-love are more 
powerful motives than, virtue or feminine mod- 
esty. 

4. Avoid evil publications. 

The character of people may be conjectured 
from their favourite reading. We all love to 
read of those things which fall in with the gen- 
eral current of our thoughts and principles. 
Those who are in heart, if not in life, gone from 
the virtues here advocated, love to be contem- 
plating the record of crimes committed against 
this law. And there are wretches base enough 
to make merchandise of this vulture love of car- 
rion. Hence the various " Gazettes" of the day, 
with their histories of crime and outrage, every 
nauseating particular of which is dilated upon, 
and embellished with all the power of a mind 
long familiar with such topics. Those who hang 
over the pestilential pages of these details, can- 
not fail to be injured thereby, unless, indeed, 
they are already too far gone in vice to be made 
worse. 

Some works of fiction, ancient and modem, 
are of the same sickening stamp, and emanate 
from the same low class of writers. In fact, 
some of them are merely embellished memoirs of 
their authors, set forth under the shelter of ficti- 



190 



THE RIGHT WAY. 



tious names and places. A rake, broken down 
and superannuated at thirty ; his property squan- 
dered with riotous living, and his nearest rela- 
tives alienated from him ; deprived by his known 
character of all hope of honourable employment, 
and disabled by disease from physical labour; 
unable to dig, and too notorious to beg success- 
fully, betakes himself to his pen as his last re- 
sort, and, for his material, opens the rank charnel- 
house of his memory. Yice is painted in the 
most enticing colours, at the sacrifice of all truth. 
The half idiot who was his first partner in sin is 
exalted into a queen of beauty and grace. The 
scorn which the incensed community have heap- 
ed upon his head is never mentioned. The tears 
of his aged parents over their fallen son, as their 
gray hairs go with sorrow down to the grave, are 
passed by in silence. 'No allusion is made to his 
own present wretched state, with its deep dis- 
grace, and want, and disease. This part of the 
story is omitted, and the way of vice is painted 
as a fascinating and safe path of hberty and 
bliss. 

And ignorant youth fancies that all this is 
real ; that to study such delineations is the way 
to " learn human nature." As well might they 
dig down into a recent sepulchre, and fondle the 
fetid remains of putrid corpses, by way of learn- 
ing human nature. There is death in every 
touch, and the atmosphere of corruption enters 
with every breath. Learning human nature, for- 



SEVENTH COMMANDMENT. 



191 



sooth. " This wisdom descendeth not from dbove^ 
hut is ea/rthly^ sensual, cmd devilish.'''' 

To be in the midst of the morally degraded 
does not cause the eye and the ear to become 
immoral. It is destructive, but not for such rea- 
sons as this. It is ruinous, because by means of 
the ear and the eye the imagination is poisoned, 
and the mind is immersed in evil. But if we read 
elaborate descriptions of those very things, the 
same ideas are suggested, the same impressions 
are conveyed, but in a less disgusting, less start- 
ling, and therefore more dangerous mode. If the 
evil revelations are all hterally true, they will 
contaminate in the same degree. If the lives of 
felons are truly rehearsed, the perusal can only 
defile. The minutes of criminal cases may be 
coiTcctly reported, but every modest eye will 
turn away in disgust, and every wise mind will 
refuse to burden the memory with the unclean 
thing. In a word, if we cast out all evil 
thoughts, and then guard every avenue by which 
they are hable to return, we may hope to be 
^^jpure in hea/irtr 

I have thus endeavoured to set before the 
reader as full and as plain a discussion of the 
subject as is consistent with my general plan; 
and if he has been turning these pages hither 
and thither, in hot haste, to find something gross 
and immodest with which to feed his vitiated 
imagination, I congratulate him on his disap- 
pointment. 



192 



THE KiaHT WAT. 



IX. 

EIGHTH COMMANDMENT. 

THOU SHALT NOT STEAL. 

Fkom the very first step in o"ur examination of 
the law, we have seen that its various precepts 
and prohibitions refer not only to the particular 
sins mentioned, but to various tendencies to sin, 
of which those specified are merely the types. 
The commandment now before ns refers to the 
numerous and multiform transgressions connect- 
ed with property. 

I. Modes in which this peecept is trans- 

GEESSED. 

1. Sins by which man wrongs himself, and 
those dependent upon him. 

(1.) Idleness, or a lack of application and 
energy in temporal affairs. 

This evil manifests itself in two distinct forms, 
one of which constitutes the lazy man, the other 
the careless man. 

The lazy man hates work. He is averse to ex- 
ertion of any kind, and has a special horror of 
those bustHng people who are always busy them- 
selves, and always disturbing the drowsy quiet 
of those around them. His portrait is drawn 
very faithfully by Solomon, in his book of Prov- 



EIGHTH COMMANDMENT. 



193 



erbs. In the morning, when he onght to be up 
and doing, he snores out, " Yet a little sleejp^ a 
little slumber^ a little folding of the hands to 
sleejpP When the snn is far on his daily j onrne j, 
the lazy man, with mighty efforts, opens his 
leaden eyes, rises partly np, and begins to ponder, 
in his slow brain, the business of the day. But 
he sees a thousand difficulties before him — " his 
way is a hedge of thorns^ He cannot plough, 
" hy reasmi of the cold f and the longer he pon- 
ders, the greater and more numerous his diffi- 
culties become. He is totally opposed to haste 
and to rashness ; and on this point " he is wiser 
in his own conceit than seven men who can render 
Oj reasonP Although it is now approaching mid- 
day, he has his doubts whether the beasts of prey, 
which prowl by night, are yet gone to their dens. 
He fears to open the door of his dwelling, for he 
saith, very sagely, There is a lion without; I 
shall he slain in the streets^ And in despair he 
" hideth his hand in his hosom^ and will not so 
much as luring it to his mouth againP As the 
man of energy presses on his way, and, passing 
by the field of the sluggard, glances upon the 
neglected spot, it is all grown over with 
thorns^ and nettles have covered the face thereof^ 
amd the stone wall thereof is hrohen downP And 
Want comes " as an armed man^^ and binds the 
sluggard in his cold chains, and breathes desola- 
tion upon the scene. 

The careless man, on the contrary, is active 
9 



194 



THE EIGHT WAY. 



enoiigli in body, and, in a certain sense, in mind 
also ; bnt for lack of cool forethonglit, and calm 
consideration, his activity produces little. Solo- 
mon, in describing the slothful man, says that he 
is " hr other to him who is a great waster P The 
character now before us is the one to whom he 
refers. The heedless man plunges into one pro- 
ject after another, without reasoning the matter 
through so as to ascertain where he will come out. 
As he abandons each of his brilliant schemes, 
he does it perhaps without any clear idea whether 
he lost or gained ; at all events, without any new 
experience that will profit him in the next enter- 
prise. He never has a clear understanding of the 
stateof his affairs. He cannot tell how much others 
owe him ; nor can he do more than guess at the 
amount of his debts. For want of a well-devised 
plan at the outset, and carefulness in the execu- 
tion, many an undertaking, which in other hands 
would have done well, results in loss. He is too 
fast in many of his movements, and in some too 
slow, and in all shows too little j udgment. If he 
has inherited a patrimony, his property disap- 
pears in a manner to him most unaccountable. 
While he has been attending to the concerns of 
his neighbours, or applying himself very labori- 
ously to the affairs of the nation, his own have 
gone to ruin. If he commences the world with- 
out property, he has the reputation of activity, 
and yet never accumulates anything for old age, 
or for his children. He is uniformly unsuccess- 



EIGHTH COMMANDMENT. 195 



ful in his enterprises, because in all his opera- 
tions there is a lack of that cool, sound judgment, 
which springs from patient, reasoning thought. 
He fails of success, because he will not disciphne 
his mind to close attention to business ; and the 
source of his misfortunes, to a great extent, is 
mental indolence — a distaste for mental labour. 

(2.) Lavish expenditure, or waste. 

The man who is imattentive to his affairs, 
loses his property he knows not how ; but the 
spendthrift wastes his in the gratification of fool- 
ish whims, wrong habits, or evil passions. The 
style of living may be too expensive. Costly 
raiment, the ''purple and fine linen^^ as well as 
the " sumptuous foure^'' maybe deemed indispen- 
sable by those of slender means. There may 
be too great expenditure on the dwelling, the 
grounds and the equipage of those accounted 
rich. And among all classes, some will be fond 
of display, and will seek to gratify their vanity 
by outshining their neighbours in dress, furniture, 
and entertainments got up for mere show. Thus 
appetite, and fashion, and vanity, exhaust all 
their means ; and if they do not trench on the 
payments of just debts, they often leave nothing 
for good works. The Hebrews were forbidden 
to glean their own fields. The scattered hand- 
fuls of grain were left for " the poor^ the father- 
less^ and the stfram.gerr But prodigality can 
shave the fields as bare as avarice itself. 

It is true, that in consulting our taste to a cer- 



196 



THE RIGHT WAY. 



tain extent, we are rigM ; but we have no right 
to lavish OTir abundance upon gratifications of 
this character. K our food be conducive to 
health, and the expense be kept within proper 
bounds, we may consult our preferences with 
regard to the particular articles of diet. In 
clothing, if the style be comfortable and modest, 
and the cost no greater than it should be, we are 
at liberty to prefer one colour, or shape, to others. 
But when all our means are expended in an in- 
sane attempt to outdo our neighbours, and to 
chase up fashions which are as changeable and 
as fleeting as the shadows gliding over the plain, 
we render ourselves criminal in the sight of God, 
and ridiculous in the eyes of men. Woe to the 
dwellers in a luxurious house, from whose cold 
door the helpless beggar is turned away, ragged, 
hungry, and faint, to shed fruitless tears upon 
the insensate ground, and wander, with no home, 
no shelter, but the grave. 

(3.) Sometimes property is lost by visionary 
schemes and hazardous business operations. 

l!^eedless exposure to danger is criminal. He 
who possesses capital of his own, or has that of 
others intrusted to him, and embarks the whole in 
some doubtful project, which he hopes will result 
in enormous gains, but which may result in his total 
ruin, sins, even if successful. He has no right 
needlessly to risk the property of others in the 
pursuit of wealth. For gain, he has no right to 
expose his possessions in such a way as to make 



EIGHTH COMMANDMENT. 197 

the payment of his just debts doubtful, and en- 
danger the maintenance of his family. And this 
is the mode in which most of the bankruptcies 
of the day occur. All is risked upon some con- 
jectured rise or fall in cotton, wheat, or stocks, 
and the transaction results in sudden wealth or 
sudden ruin. Such schemes as these are no bet- 
ter than the risks of the gambler or of the horse- 
jockey. 

Little need be said with regard to betting, or 
staking property upon unknown events. He 
who is desirous to make money in this mode, is 
at heart a thief, destitute of the first principles 
of common honesty. His knavish soul would 
prompt him to steal outright, did not this present 
apparently a safer course. An honourable pro- 
fessional gambler is as hard to find as an honest 
professional pickpocket. The object of both is 
to get possession of other people's property, with- 
out rendering an equivalent. 

(4.) The miser's hoards are not innocent. 

If rightly employed, property is productive of 
good. Capital sets labour in motion, and sends 
comfort and plenty through many long, branch- 
ing channels. The capital now in existence is 
the product of the labour of human hands, em- 
ployed upon the material which the Creator 
furnished. Take from a community all that la- 
bour has produced, and man relapses into the 
utter destitution of savage life. But he who 
gets possession of property, and, mole-like, bur- 



198 



THE RIGHT WAY. 



rows in the earth, and hides his treasure, takes 
from society that which wonld aid in rendering 
it prosperous. He is like the servant who hid 
his lord's money. To withdraw capital from 
profitable and safe employment is to render it 
useless. For the time it is lost to society. He 
who secures a bank-note of a million sterling, 
incloses it in a gilt frame, and makes it a mere 
parlour ornament, year after year throws away, 
merely to gratify his vanity, the sum which it 
would annually produce at interest, and wantonly 
deducts so much from his means of doing good. 
In consequence of this waste, tears are flowing 
which might have been wiped away, and the 
sorrow-stricken hearts of the penniless orphan 
and the aged widow are not comforted. For 
lack of funds, the benevolent operations of char- 
itable societies are straitened ; and missionaries 
of eternal truth are unable to enter fields which 
are white to the harvest. He who hides his 
Lord's money in the earth, be the sum great or 
small, does wrong. 

2. Pecuniary wrongs done others. 

(1.) Robbery, or the unjust and violent wrest- 
ing of property from the owner. 

The deed may be done in various ways, and 
the guilt remain the same. Overt violence, or 
secret menaces, may be resorted to ; they may 
be employed directly, or by remote agencies, 
yet all bear the same dishonest stamp. To this 
class of sins we might assign those legal pro- 



EIGHTH COMMANDMENT. 



199 



cesses in which advantage is taken of the letter - 
of the civil law to violate the spirit. 

If we are forbidden to deprive an innocent 
man, bj violence and from selfish motives, of the 
property which his skill and indnstr j have cre- 
ated, we cannot, without greater wrong, seize a 
guiltless man, and, from motives of gain, compel 
him to labour for our emolument. If a thief 
steal a watch, he is guilty of wrong : but he is 
doubly guilty if he steal the artisan, and for his 
own personal profit compel him to spend his 
whole Life in constructing watches for his captor. 

(2.) Theft, or secretly taking possession of the 
goods of another, with an intention to deprive 
him of them without his consent. This needs no 
explanation. The fact that the person to whom 
the wrong is done may never discover it, has no 
bearing upon the morality of the transaction ; 
nor is the question affected materially by the 
value of the stolen article. 

(3.) Fraud, deception, all unfair dealing, are 
condemned. 

To be on a safe and permanent basis, trafiic 
must be so conducted as to be advantageous to 
all concerned. Every article set forth for sale 
should have a price set upon it which the seller 
can receive, and the buyer pay, in justice to 
themselves. This price we will call the market 
value. ]N"ow, if either party tries to take advan- 
tage of the other's weakness, or want of acquaint- 
ance with the matter in hand, that moment he 



200 



THE EIGHT WAY. 



is guilty of sin, whetlier lie be successful or not 
in liis attempted fraud. The General Rules of 
our Clinrcli condemn " the using many words in 
buying or selhng." There is propriety in giving 
a note of warning on this point, since the proverb 
is peculiarly applicable : In the mulUtude of 
words there wanteth not sin.^^ It is in vain to 
reply, that in adjusting a bargain, no one believes 
either the extravagant encomiums of the seller, 
or the disparaging rejoinders of the purchaser. 
If falsehoods are asserted with the hope that 
they will be believed, the intention involves 
guilt, whatever may be the result of the effort 
to deceive. The purchaser is as frequently in 
the wrong as the seller: "7z^ is ncmght^ it is 
ncmght, saith the huyer / hut when he is gone his 
wojy^ then he loasteth^^ of the bargain he has 
made. 

Honest men trafficking with each other, or 
with the dishonest, will endeavour to fix upon 
terms which the two parties ought to be willing 
to accept, were they to change their places in 
the transaction. I^othing less than this is Scrip- 
tural honesty. This, too, is the honesty which 
is the " best policy." The plea that " men can- 
not succeed in business if they are perfectly 
honest," sounds well in the mouth of a cheat, 
but is never found anywhere else. It may be 
that in a business conducted on the principle 
advocated, the separate items of gain will be in 
Bome cases smaller ; but the increased trade 



EIGHTH COMMANDMENT. 201 



would soon swell tlie aggregate of profit beyond 
the former amount. Deception, lying, and fraud, 
are a poor foundation for success in life. But 
whether honesty is good or bad policy, duty 
leaves no alternative ; and he who is honest 
solely from policy, can lay no claim to the genu- 
ine virtue. 

(4.) To take advantage of the weaknesses of 
others, and thus deprive them of their property, 
is dishonest. 

Prejudice may sway the judgment, or passion 
lead men to act contrary to its teachings. Ap- 
petite sometimes overpowers reason and con- 
science, self-regard, and natural affection. The 
poor inebriate sees the horrid gulf before him, 
and yet he will not, or cannot, turn back. The 
love of alcohol has grown into a master-passion, 
a remorseless tyrant, which loads him with 
chains, and drags him downward. He would 
gladly reform. He resolves, and prays, and 
agonizes ; but cannot control the deadly thirst. 
'Now the vender of alcohol is well aware of all 
these facts. He knows that, for alcohol, his 
victim would barter all that he has in this world, 
and all that he hopes for in the world to come. 
Yet the vender, for the sake of getting his vic- 
tim's money, sets before him a temptation which 
he knows that he ought to resist, but cannot, and 
coolly puts in his pocket the price of blood. 
Some sins are but distorted virtues. They are 
so interwoven with noble qualities, that they 
9* 



202 



THE RiaPIT WAY. 



gather lustre not their own, and lose half their 
horror in their magnanimity : but it is not so with 
the murderer of the drunkard. His presence is a 
plague-spot in the community, and his den is the 
slaughter-house of souls. His calling is infamous. 
He is guilty of covetousness, theft, and murder, in 
the same act, thus transgressing the command- 
ments by wholesale. His license, which consti- 
tutes an " indulgence " to commit sin, is a farce as 
contemptible as it is iniquitous. " Woe unto him 
that giveth his neighbour dri/nJc, that putfest thy 
dottle to him, amd mahest him drunken alsoP 

If the master-passion be of any other kind, and 
avarice make merchandise of it, it is equally dis- 
honest. 

(5.) Imperfect service rendered for wages. 

He who receives compensation, whether an 
annual salary or daily wages, for the perform- 
ance of stipulated services, should consider him- 
self bound to use all due dihgence in the duties 
thus assumed. In many cases supervision is out 
of the question. The farmer or the master- work- 
man may be absent, or the labourers may be 
scattered in different places, where the eye of 
the employer, or of his representative, cannot 
follow them ; or the labour itself may be of such 
a character as to furnish no exact criterion of 
the amount performed. And the same re- 
sponsibility exists in the higher departments 
of service, in which there are salaried officers, 
whether paid from public or private fimds. 



EIGHTH COMMANDMENT. 



203 



Whoever makes his office a sinecure by neglect- 
ing its duties, and yet receives his regular stipend, 
is dishonest. "Whether office be held in Church 
or state, whether the employer be a corporation 
or an individual, whether the service performed 
requires mental or physical exertion, or both, he 
who receives pay is bound in common honesty 
to apply himself diligently to the duties of his 
office ; he must be exact, energetic, and perse- 
vering, and thus care for the interests of the em- 
ployer, as if they were his own. 

(6.) Delay, or utter failure, in the payment of 
debts. 

Debts incurred by borrowing, or buying, or in 
any other mode, must be discharged according 
to the expressed or implied terms of the under- 
standing had. Promises to pay must be ful- 
filled in due amount and at the time specified or 
implied. If the payment of a debt be delayed 
beyond the proper time, the creditor is deprived 
unjustly of the use of that portion of his property, 
and thus suffers loss, perhaps falls into serious 
embarrassment for the want of it. Besides, 
where the delay is prolonged, a total failure to 
pay may arise from circumstances not foreseen 
b}' either party. 

Loans of every character must be returned 
honourably and justly. K a farmer, promising 
to return it in ten days, borrows wheat, worth in 
the market a certain price, and fails to pay till 
the next year, when wheat can be bought at half 



204 



THE EIGHT WAY. 



the former price, and then wishes his neighbour 
to be content with the same number of bushels 
borrowed, he is seeking a dishonest settlement. 
Had the payment been made at the stipulated 
time, all would have been right. If the price 
had fallen, the lender could not justly have de- 
manded an increase of the quantity, as he virtu- 
ally agreed to risk the probability of change in 
prices. But when the time is extended beyond 
the agreement, the borrower must return value 
for value. He has no right by his delay to in- 
volve others in losses. Transactions of this kind 
should be so conducted that each party would be 
satisfied if his own measure were " meted to Mm 
again r 

To incur debt, when the debtor knows pay- 
ment to be improbable, is deliberate dishonesty, 
unless he states his fears fairly and candidly be- 
fore the debt is incurred. To incur debt, where 
the debtor knows payment to be impossible, is 
equivalent to downright stealing. K payment 
is deemed certain, but circumstances are likely 
to delay it, fair deahng requires that the creditor 
be informed of all beforehand. There should be 
no deception, no want of candour. 

(7.) To take advantage of the pecuniary diffi- 
culties of others, and thus get possession of their 
property without rendering an equivalent, is as 
dishonest as it is ungenerous. 

By unforeseen events, those engaged in busi- 
ness are sometimes unable to maintain their 



EIGHTH COMMANDMENT. 205 

standing in the commercial world, without re- 
sorting to sndden loans or ruinous sacrifices of 
property. Money must be had, at whatever sacri- 
fice. And then, as the circling buzzards alight 
on the neighbouring tree, and with hungry eye 
watch the last struggles of the dying antelope, 
ready to tear the entrails of the victim while still 
palpitating with departing life, so do usurers, 
who are ever on the look-out for cases of this 
kind, gather round the man who is involved in 
pecuniary difficulty, and in cool blood look on 
to ascertain how they can make most out of his 
misfortunes. Speculators of this stamp are as 
cruel as death, and as insatiate as the grave. 
They will ruin even one of their own number, 
who falls into embarrassment, as wolves are said 
instantly to attack and devour any one of the 
gang which happens to be wounded. 

(8.) 'Not may we silently take advantage of 
the ignorance of those with whom we deal. 

If a child finds a mass of gold, under circum- 
stances which render it really his, and we, accept- 
ing his ignorant offer, and taking advantage of 
his inexperience, buy it for a thousandth part of 
its true value, we act dishonestly. In a word, 
the precept, " Thou shalt not steal^'' considered 
with reference to our duty to others, is merely a 
specific application of the more general rule, 
All things whatsoever ye would that men should 
do to you^ do ye even so to them^for this is the 
LAW (Mid the prophets?^ 



206 



THE EIGHT WAY. 



n. KeASONS foe DIYIIfE LEGISLATION WITH REF- 
EEENCE TO PEOPEETT. 

1. For the great purposes of life, and as an aid 
to tlie progress of the individual, and to society, 
property is valuable. 

Without accumulation, there can be no escape 
from the degrading condition of the savage. If 
the wild fisherman is compelled to ply his rude 
art without cessation, merely to supply his daily 
wants, how can he increase his comforts or his 
conveniences? As he sits upon the border of 
the stream, in the prosecution of his endless 
labour, the idea of constructing a canoe may 
occur to him; but if he must fish from the 
morning to the evening twilight, he has no lei- 
sure to accomplish his plan. A proj ect for build- 
ing a better habitation than his present shelter 
may suggest itself, but no time to perform the 
work is found. If the labour of the day merely 
provides for the necessities of the day, he is fixed 
in hopeless barbarism. 

But suppose that one day's active toil will pro- 
duce food for two days — ^he now finds time to 
build his projected cabin. He also carves out 
his canoe, and as he can now choose his locali- 
ties better, he fishes with increased success. The 
idea of a net occurs to him, he finds opportunity 
to construct it, and accumulates still more rapid- 
jy. He learns to dry his finny spoil, and thus 
make provision for long storms, for illness, and 
other contingencies. He finds space to cut down 



EIGHTH COMMANDMENT. 207 



the forest ; lie plants, and sows, and reaps. He 
progresses towards civilization, precisely as his 
accumnlations of available property increase. 
Society improves ; imperfect sciences and the 
germs of the fine arts appear, and the bright dawn 
of literature is seen in the horizon. Laws, cus- 
toms, and education, assume a fuller growth, and 
finally the refinements of mature civilization 
adorn the land. Yet, without accumulation, all 
this would have been impossible. Labour, result- 
ing in accumulation, has driven back the prowl- 
ing denizens of the forest, and gladdened our land 
with green meadows and waving harvests, and 
laid the foundations of noble cities, with their 
myriad heavenward spires. If necessity, or in- 
dolence, or stupidity, or grinding oppression, pre- 
vents the increase of property, the advance of 
civilization itself is stayed, and progress ceases 
when accumulation ends. It is not beneath the 
dignity of the Creator, therefore, to legislate with 
reference to property, seeing that it is closely 
connected with the improvement of the race. 

2. Property is an important aid in the promo- 
tion of individual improvement and happiness. 

Without previous pecuniary accumulations, 
not a school-house could be built, nor a book 
printed, not even the Book of Life ; no church 
could open its portals to the penitent ; no asylum 
for the helpless, suffering poor, spread its shelter- 
ing roof Without previous accumulation, there 
could be no provision made for sickness, or old 



208 



THE EIGHT WAY. 



age ; and no father, parting in death from Ids 
family, coidd console Hmself with the thought, 
that though bereaved, they wiU not be desti- 
tute. 

But property is of essential service in the im- 
provement of the individual. In the training of 
a civilized man, recourse is had, at every step, 
to something which could not have existed with- 
out previous labom' and preservation. Schools 
and colleges, cabinets, apparatus, and libraries, 
could otherwise have no existence. Of the 
labours of the learned, not one thought could 
ever have been written down and preserved, had 
not leisui'e from the struggles for a bare subsist- 
ence been found to prepare the paper or the 
parchment, and pen the words destined to wake 
the intellects of after ages. 

And every new fact in science, every new de- 
gree of mental acuteness gained, adds leisure for 
new investigations and new advances. The ma- 
chinery that weaves the garment, or reaps the 
field, or beats out the grain, and prepares it for 
market, is doing labour otherwise to be performed 
by human bones and sinews ; and consequently 
is affording facilities for mental cultui-e and new 
improvement. It is impossible for any com- 
munity to elevate itself to any great height of 
intellectual eminence without previous accumu- 
lations, the product of toil and care. 

3. Property is an aid in the operations of the 
moral and religious world. 



EIGHTH COMMANDMENT. 



209 



How can we '-''heal the sick^ feed the hrnigry^ 
and clothe the naked^^ unless we have first secured 
more tlian our own necessities demand? The 
naked cannot clothe each other, nor the starv- 
f ing supply each other's wants, nor can paupers 

endow the almshouse. good mem showeth 

fawour, and lendethP^ but can he do this be- 
fore something to lend has been accumulated? 
If we are totally without means, how may we 
" give to him that asketh^ a/nd from him that 
would borrow ^ turn not awa/yT^ If the Chris- 
tian world do not gather beyond what will sup- 
ply their own necessities, then they must aban- 
don the missionary of the cross to his fate. The 
Bible Society must stop its busy presses, and the 
tract distributer must cease to scatter the leaves 
of the tree of life, given for the healing of the 
nations. A total lack of means would disband 
every benevolent society, palsy ten thousand 
hands which are now stretched forth to do good, 
and silence the ten thousand tongues which are 
publishing peace. Every church edifice within 
whose walls the strains of Calvary faU upon the 
ear, and renew the soul, is but accumulated 
value, petrified labour. When we take into 
consideration the various modes in which prop- 
erty may be rendered promotive of the best in- 
terests of man, we see abundant reason why He 
who watches over the welfare of his creatures 
should interpose in its defence, and say, " Thou 
shalt not stealP A man's honest earnings, as 



210 



THE RiaHT WAT. 



well as his mental and physical abilities, are 
things given him of God, to be employed for 
good, and in this aspect they are truly yaluable, 
and he should be protected in the right enjoy- 
ment of them. 

4. Property is exposed to depredation, and 
consequently needs a law to prevent the assaults 
of selfishness and avarice. 

Force may attack the helpless, and fraud be- 
guile the inexperienced, and this commandment 
interposes for the defence of the innocent. In 
civilized life, capital assumes so many forms, 
that no man can hope to become arehable judge 
of it in all its multiplied modifications. The 
man who is strong in the law, may be ignorant 
of agriculture; and the far-sighted dealer in 
stocks may be unacquainted with machinery. 
He who is acute in mercantile business may be 
cheated in the purchase of a horse ; and the able 
navigator may be overreached in buying a 
farm. He who is a safe operator in his own 
province, may, when straying beyond its bor- 
ders, be as a mere child in the hands of men 
who do not possess a tithe of his strength of in- 
tellect, or of his general information. These are 
the circumstances which demand the existence 
of the principle called honesty. If, in every 
business transaction, both parties knew precisely 
what ought to be paid, or done, it would be im- 
possible to cheat, or be cheated. The precept, 
then, is interposed to defend the guileless against 



EIGHTH COMMANDMENT. 211 



the crafty, the ignorant against the sMlful, the 
generous against the avaricious, and the nnsns- 
pecting against those versed in the most unscru- 
pulous modes of traffic. 

Again: these attacks may be made upon 
property in every form. By means of forged 
deeds and suborned witnesses, houses and lands 
may be wrested from their rightfiil owners ; gold 
and silver may be stolen ; just debts may be re- 
pudiated by a fraudulent banki-uptcy ; false 
claims may be set up, and by falsehood and per- 
jury urged on with success. In whatever way 
we may invest it ; in whatever form we may put 
it, property is still exposed to the inroads of open 
violence, or hidden treachery. Treasures laid 
up in heaven only are secure. There alone moth 
and rust corrupt not, nor thieves break through 
and steal. Therefore God prohibits those acts 
of dishonesty which none but he may detect. 
He interposes his shield in the defence of the 
innocent and the unsuspicious. Therefore he 
authorizes man to consider all offences against 
the rights of property crimes to be punished by 
the civil ruler. 

5. What an honest man earns, is his own ; and 
to wrest it from him unlawfully, violates the 
principles of justice and right. 

There can be no stronger claim of human 
origin, than that which arises from a man's own 
invention and labour. The fish which he has 
caught in the open sea ; the timbers which he 



212 



THE EIGHT WAY. 



has hewn out in the unclaimed forest, are his. 
That which his ingenuity devised, and his hands 
began, and his industry accomplished, no one 
else can claim. It is his, because the hands, the 
brain, the soul which did the work, are his, and 
not another's. In a certain degree, God has en- 
trusted every man with the task of securing his 
own temporal welfare. A certain amount of 
mental and physical labour is requisite, and he 
is made responsible for the due performance of 
it. He who lives by dishonesty, does less than 
his share of work, and consequently that de- 
ficiency is laid upon others, who bear it in ad- 
dition to their own. If one man obtains pay 
without work, some one else must work without 
pay. The real labourer toils in vain, while an- 
other filches his earnings. He who obtains a 
dollar in any dishonest mode, has usurped the 
reward of some one else's honest labour. Though 
the matter may be so intricate that the precise 
train of cause and effect may not appear at a 
glance, yet, when traced out in all its windings, 
this is the result. The act is plainly at vari- 
ance with the generous spirit of the law, which 
saith, " Thou skalt love thy neighbour as thyself.'''' 

6. Dishonesty is injurious to the interests of 
both the parties concerned. 

The loser is injured. His efforts to supply his 
own wants, and lay up a store for those de- 
pendent upon him, are obstructed. God de- 
signed the rewards of industry to be a motive to 



EIGHTH COMMANDMENT. 213 

induce men to labour. But theft renders prop- 
erty insecure: labour and its rewards, wbicli 
God batli joined together, are put asunder, and 
the inducements to toil and economy are less- 
ened. Thus the insecurity of property tends to 
lessen production, and superinduce idleness, im- 
providence and want, upon the whole commu- 
nity, and public prosperity is destroyed. Where 
there is no security for property, there will be 
no accumulation, and no prosperity. 

Again : he who lives by fraud is injured. La- 
bour, active exertion of mental and physical 
power, is one of the means whereby God dis- 
ciplines men, and leads them on to strength and 
dignity. In the sweat of his face shall man eat 
bread; and by exercise, effort, toil, the full 
stature of man is attained. Those who are 
trained where no motive-power is applied, are 
puny and inert in mind and body. He who re- 
fuses to obtain a livelihood in an honest way, 
neglects the right exercise of his nobler powers, 
and cultivates only those of cunning, deception, 
and treachery, the characteristics of the prowling 
beast of prey. Thus he suffers loss in his intel- 
lectual nature. In his moral nature, he dete- 
riorates still more rapidly. His mode of life is 
detestably selfish and mean. He is too lazy to 
labour for himself, and he therefore prowls about, 
seeking to live upon the labour of others. K his 
nefarious arts and efforts result in abundant 
plunder, he is void of that becoming satisfaction 



214 



THE RIGHT WAT. 



with wMcli industry snryeys its honest accumu- 
lations. He knows that he is a public enemy, 
and that his name is infamous. Thus in his own 
eyes he is debased and hateful. To his sus- 
picious soul, every eye that lights upon him 
seems to reflect the contempt which he feels for 
himself, and every lip seems to curl with scorn 
which he is conscious that he deserves. He is 
haunted with continual fears of his fellow-men, 
and is cut off from all society except the worst. 
He is debarred enj oyments of an elevating char- 
acter, and his pleasures are earthly and sensual. 
Thus his violations of a righteous law react upon 
himself with a weight of evil tenfold greater 
than that which those suffer whom he plunders. 
Thus thieves, robbers, gamblers, in all their va- 
riety, and cheats of every hue, form a miserable, 
fallen class in society. Without a return to hon- 
esty, they cannot save themselves from deep 
degradation. In attempting to live upon the 
toils of others, they are violating a great plan. 
God's design is, that each shall not indolently 
and meanly lean upon his fellows, and compel 
them to bear his burden, but carry it himself. 
And he who, in moral questions, turns aside from 
the plan of his Creator, as surely wars against 
his own good, as if he were to attempt to sustain 
physical life with poison, instead of bread. Strict 
honesty is the highest wisdom, " hmmg jpromise 
of the life that now is^^^ as well as a bearing 
upon " that which is to comeP 



EIGHTH COMMANDMENT. 215 

Let the reader, then, resolve to maintain the 
strictest integrity in all things. In your reflec- 
tions upon these matters, labour to obtain clear 
conceptions of truth and duty. Let the right be 
separated from the wrong, not by a misty inter- 
val, but by a broad, plain line. Beware of dis- 
honesty in small things. There is no great dan- 
ger of great transgressions where there have never 
been any small ones. Beware of acts of question- 
able propriety, remembering that in these things 
" he that doubteth is damned.'''^ No sin will re- 
main alone long. From a law of human nature 
and human circumstances, its tendency is to 
increase and multiply, and gather in other sins 
from every quarter. He who becomes dishonest, 
at once finds it necessary to violate the truth ; 
and he who lies, will occasionally find himself in 
a position where perjury seems to offer the 
readiest way to escape degrading developments. 
Thus one crime after another clusters about the 
nucleus of evil, till their name is Legion ; and 
the man sinks lower and lower still, till he 
plunges into eternal perdition, and the dark 
*vaves of the returnless gulf close over his head. 



216 



THE EIGHT WAT. 



X. 

NINTH COMMANDMENT. 

THOU SHALT NOT BEAK FALSE WITNESS AGAINST THY 
NEIGHBOUR. 

The teuth embodies all that is really valuable in 
the intellectual world. In religion, morals, phi- 
losophy, history, and daily converse, the truth is 
the precious gem, while the theory, or the nar- 
rative, is but the setting ; and if the gem be false, 
the whole is worthless. 

The Ninth Commandment is set for the de- 
fence of the truth. It teaches us to honour it in 
our hearts, to keep it with our Hps, and adorn 
our lives with its light and beauty. 

I. The sms forbidden m this precept. 

1. Perjury. When a witness is summoned to 
our courts of justice, he is required to make oath 
that the evidence he shall give in the case " shall 
be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but 
the truth." But sometimes those testifying under 
oath are reluctant to reveal what they know, 
and, under various pretences, they manage to 
withhold, at least, a part of it. To withhold the 
truth, in such a case, is as really a violation of 
the solemn oath, as a direct falsehood would be. 

righteous mem sweareth to his own htirt, omd 
chcmgeth not^'' 



NINTH COMMANDMENT. 21Y 



2. Dishonourable legal management is fre- 
quently found in close connexion with the evil 
just mentioned. 

Before a man is authorized to practise as an 
attorney and counsellor, he is required to make 
oath that he will " demean himself honourably 
and faithfully " in the execution of the duties of 
his profession. But a low state of morals has, 
to some extent, been introduced by the false as- 
sumption that the oath binds the attorney to be 
faithful to his client, rather than to all honesty 
and good faith. Consequently, a lawyer will 
often object to witnesses whom he sees no reason 
to doubt. When his own witnesses are upon the 
stand, he will endeavour so to conduct the ex- 
amination that the truth may be elicited only so 
far as it is favourable to the cause he is pleading. 
In legal addresses, advantage is often taken of 
the weaknesses, the prejudices, and even of the 
interests and the vices, of judges and jurors, to 
obtain the desired verdict. Resort is had to 
every device that craft and ingenuity can invent, 
and the object aimed at is too often success 
rather than justice. Too often, the more palpa- 
ble the violation of truth and right, the greater 
the triumph of the victor. Though honest, hon- 
ourable, and Christian men may be found in this 
profession, yet strong temptations surround it, one 
of the most dangerous of which originates in the 
fact, that professional reputation depends chiefly 
upon the success of the practitioner in winning 



218 



THE KiaHT WAY. 



causes. Happy are they who escape this snare, 
and render their office an auxiliary of justice, to 
defend right against might, the weak against the 
strong, and innocence against violence. Where 
pleaders and witnesses are all under the solemn 
obligation of an oath to deal truthfully, we might 
expect falsehood and unfair dealing to be un- 
known. 

3. Slander and detraction. Murder does not 
always grasp the dagger, nor does revenge al- 
ways raise the hand of violence. The same de- 
structive passions may find gratification in the 
vile use of the tongue. This mode of satisfying 
hate is generally adopted by those who have not 
the courage to try the others. Tlie calumniator 
can work in the dark. He can concoct a slander- 
ous accusation, and repeat it here and there, all 
the while adding the strictest injunctions of se- 
crecy, tin the whole air is full of the malicioi.^ 
fabrication. The injured person, meanwhile, 
may be totally unconscious of the attack. He 
sees that something is wrong. He detects sus- 
picious glances of the eye, and marks the changed 
expression of the countenance of his acquaint- 
ances. He feels the social atmosphere growing 
cold and chill around him. And thus the pro- 
cess goes on, till character is seriously injured. 
The whole thing may be so enveloped in mystery, 
that the assailed one knows not whom to charge 
with the assault, or how to defend himself He 
may be a stranger, and thus peculiarly exposed 



NINTH COMMANDMENT. 



219 



to tlie fiery darts of the enemy. Tims lie is stab- 
bed, and falls. His peace may be destroyed by 
the slander, his business prospects maybe ruined, 
and a dark cloud thrown over his path. 

Perhaps the slanderer selects as his victim one 
of the other sex, whose reputation a breath may 
blight. In a moment, she finds her acquaint- 
ances driven from her side. At home her friends 
are overwhelmed with grief and shame ; and 
abroad, she meets with scornfal looks from her 
own sex, and perhaps ribald insult from the 
"baser sort" of the other. If the accusations 
should be proved false and malicious, still the 
bitter words live in the memory, and the re- 
membrance is a " burden grievous to be borne." 
In circumstances such as these, many a virtuous 
female has hated the light of day, and " chosen 
strangling rather than life." 

4. Unjust insinuations against others. 

Sometimes those who never commit them- 
selves in words of open slander, infiict deep wrong 
by hinting doubts and suspicions. They make 
no charges. They call no one's integrity in 
question, directly ; yet their language, and the 
tones of their voices, and the expression of their 
countenances while speaking, excite distrust of 
the person mentioned. A traducer of this class 
is well described in the Book of Proverbs : '^He 
wwJceth with his eyes^ he sjpeaketh with his feet, 
he teacheth with his fingers. Frowa/rdness is i/n 
his hea/rt, he demiseth rmschief conlMiually ; he 



220 



THE EIGHT WAY. 



soweth discord.^'' He causes others to infer that 
lie knows mucli more than he chooses just now 
to tell, but that he could divulge something if he 
saw fit ; and thus he destroys character. This is 
slander of the worst and meanest kind. A 
plain charge can be examined and disposed 
of according to its desert ; but a mysterious look, 
a sinister glance, a meaning silence, a lifted 
eyebrow, an ominous shake of the head, have 
no precise import, and cannot be refuted or de- 
nied. 

5. Uncharitable construction of the language 
and actions of others. 

Some people pride themselves upon their won- 
derful sagacity, their acuteness in unravelling 
conduct, and getting at the secret thoughts and 
intents of the heart. Were they under the in- 
fluence of that charity which " hopeth all things," 
they might pursue their favourite amusement 
without much injury to others ; but the diffi- 
culty is, that these knowing ones are gener- 
ally under the power of envy, or of a surly dis- 
position, which causes them to discern evil much 
sooner than good, and take more pains to make 
others see it also. The language which they 
hear they always understand in the worst sense 
that can well be attached to the words. Where 
an action may possibly result from some one of 
several motives of different character, they will 
see only the worst. They are ever mousing to find 
something to confirm old suspicions or originate 



NINTH COMMANDMENT. 



221 



new ones. They proceed upon the assumption 
that, except what they possess, there is no virtue 
extant ; and that all which is needed to discover 
the fact is a little sagacity. 

Men of this stamp are exceedingly uncom- 
fortable in mind. As age grows upon them, 
they become more and more censorious and sus- 
picious. The gloomy misanthrope casts off one 
friend after another, till all are gone. This one 
shows too little consideration for an old man ; 
that one is too kind and attentive by far^ — ^he 
must be hoping for a legacy. And thus he 
busies himself in doubts and fears, becoming 
more gloomy and miserable every day, till at 
last he shuts his eyes upon a race unworthy of 
his longer stay among them, and dies lamenting 
that the world is losing the only good man which 
that generation has produced. The direct result 
of the conduct and conversation of such is to de- 
tract from the good fame of those around them ; 
and the evil which they bring upon themselves 
is only a part of the punishment due for the 
wrong which they have inflicted upon others. 
To render life comfortable and happy, faith in 
both God and man is needful. The evil sur- 
mises and slanderous suspicions which men in- 
dulge toward others return with a chilling effect 
upon themselves, and freeze into ice about their 
own hearts. It is far better to be occasionally 
deceived, than to be racked with perpetual sus- 
picions and fears. 



222 



THE EIGHT WAT. 



6. Keckless repetition of rumours and evil 
surmisings. " Where there is no tale-hearer the 
si/rife ceasethP When a malignant slanderer 
has resolved to ruin the character of the guilt- 
less he does not wish to be seen at his foul work, 
and he therefore looks about him for some one 
whom he can make his instrument. He does 
not hope to engage in his schemes either the 
honourable or the intelligent part of the com- 
munity. He turns to the incessant talker, the 
restless gadder about, the relentless gossip' — ^whis- 
pers a few words in their eager ears, and then 
sends them abroad, as Samson of old did the 
foxes and the firebrands, to inflame the com- 
munity and destroy the victim. These are the 
tools of the murderer of reputations. The more 
tongue and the less sense they possess the better is 
their mover pleased with them, since, in case of 
failure in the nefarious attempt, the sole respon- 
sibility can be thrown upon them, and the real 
criminal escape at their expense. They need 
not be malicious ; they may be utterly free from 
deliberate designs to injure ; but if they will only 
talk, they accomplish the work of one who with- 
out them would be powerless and harmless. The 
slanderer struck the spark, but they apply the 
flame on all sides, and thus become accessory to 
all the ruin caused thereby. Let all remember 
the divine admonition : " Thou shalt not go up 
a/nd down as a tale-hearer among thy peojpleP 
In most cases where wrong is done to character 



NINTH COMMANDMENT. 



223 



there is no one wilKng to become personally re- 
sponsible for the accusation, or who knows who 
is responsible for it. Detraction and slander lay 
reputation in ruins, on the authority of what 

" THEY SAT." 

7. Encouraging the detractor by listening 
eagerly to his unproved charges and unfounded 
suspicions. 

Yarious actors officiate in destroying the char- 
acter of the guiltless. The responsibility and the 
guilt rest upon the willing hearer and the active 
spreader, as well as the crafty contriver of the 
base news. Some who will not fabricate a lie, 
nor be active in telling it, will nevertheless lend 
a ready ear when it is repeated in their hearing. 
Thus they participate in the sin, since it is evi- 
dent that the false tale would not have been told 
had they testified their displeasure. The Oriental 
proverb is, that when both receive their deserts, 
^'the slanderer's tongue will be nailed to the 
listener's ear." Inspiration has said, that as the 
7iorth wind drweth away rain^ so doth am. angry 
cowntenance a haclcbitmg tongue^ In order that 
slander may be promulgated, a listener is as 
necessary as a speaker — and if one is as ready to 
hear as the other is ta utter it, the guilt is about 
equal. Gossips are cheered on in the mischievous 
business of circulating scandal by the evident 
gusto with which their wares are received, and 
he who thus encourages them becomes a par- 
taker of their sins. 



224 



THE EIGHT WAY. 



8. Flattery, or false praises, and deceptive at- 
tentions. 

Some writers, not overbnrdened with con- 
science, have taken the position that society 
could not exist if what they style " little decep- 
tions" were laid aside. This is probably true 
with regard to what is termed " fashionable so- 
ciety." Frivolous belles and empty coxcombs 
would soon lose their self-complacency if those 
who press around them with endless compli- 
ments should utter their real sentiments. The 
meanly-seMsh, the dishonest, the treacherous, 
the corrupt of every grade, would consider a 
sojourn in the Palace of Truth of Madame de 
Genlis perfectly insufferable. But what has 
rectitude to fear from truth ? In a circle com- 
posed of the pure, the amiable, and the intelli- 
gent, what need is there of feigning sentiments 
which do not exist in the heart, or of utter- 
ing words which are not true indices to the 
thoughts within? And if among the worst of 
men, why court their favour by falsehood ? This 
fashionable plea for deception and lying is as 
false in philosophy as it is in morals, l^o sys- 
tem of falsehood can be necessary or expedient, 
because permanent deception of any kind is im- 
possible. The uninitiated may be deceived for 
a time, but soon discovery will produce indig- 
nation and scorn. Flattery, then, is condemned 
for a twofold reason : it destroys a nice regard 
for the truth, and thus morally injures the 



NINTH COMMANDMENT. 225 

speaker ; and it ends in making men suspicions 
of each other. In fact, flattery is almost always 
employed to accomplish some selfish design. 
The young lady who is assured that she is all 
perfection, will naturally grow suspicious of the 
flatterer. The assemblage of citizens, to whom 
a brawling pohtician is addressing his agonizing 
eloquence, may well suspect him of some sinister 
design when he assures them that they are all 
Solons — -just, wise, generous, magnanimous, free 
from every defect, and running over with every 
excellence. Flattery, wherever and by whom- 
soever employed, presupposes craft on the part 
of the speaker, and weakness on the part of the 
hearer. The wise will know how to estimate 
themselves ; and those who seek to cajole them 
with false praise will be more likely to provoke 
their indignation than to gain their favour. 
9. Deceitful manners. 

There may be deception where no falsehood 
has been uttered. 'No one, indeed, has a right 
to construe a pleasant look into a declaration of 
confidential friendship ; nor should he rehearse 
all his thoughts and plans to every one who 
addresses him in the terms of common polite- 
ness. Yet if we take pains to appear friendly 
to a person, and always meet him with out- 
stretched hand and smihng face, and then, when 
his back is turned, make ourselves merry at his 
expense, exposing his defects, and depreciating 
his virtues, such conduct is neither honom*able 
10* 



226 



THE EIGHT WAY. 



nor just. Wliere no friendsldp is felt, none 
should be feigned. To discourse needlessly and 
scornfiillj on the failings of another is in itself 
wrong ; but if we all this time cause the yictim 
of our unMndness to believe us friendly toward 
him, we are unj ust and false. If we go fia-ther still, 
and by smooth smiles and wily language exert 
om* ingenuity to throw him off his guard, and 
cause him to divulge what he otherwise would 
not, our conduct is base and treacherous in the 
extreme. Candour may sometimes appear rude 
and harsh ; but, at its worst estate, it is better 
than false praises, and smiles that only shine 
upon the sm'face, and attentions that attract but 
to betray. 

10. Falsehood, slander, and prevarication, in 
pohtical contests. 

Yarious forms of violating the truth have been 
mentioned, and dm-ing political campaigns all 
of them are employed without end and without 
scruple by party leaders and party hacks. At 
such periods the whole atmosphere is full of 
falsehood ; scarcely one engaged in electioneer- 
ing refrains fr-om the sin. Character, however 
pure and exalted — ^public ser\ ices, however long 
and faithful, are no defence. Slanderous reports 
are set in motion, false accusations are promul- 
gated, and honom-able facts are wrested into 
crimes ; all testimony is set aside as useless ; and 
brazen assertion and wild rant usurp the place 
of reason and of proof HireHng editors and 



NINTH COMMANDMENT. 



227 



vagabond declaimers invent, declare, and as- 
severate. To saj that tMs is resorted to for the 
good of the country, is the most stupendous false- 
hood of the whole. The real object is victory, 
office, and the spoils ; and the desire of plunder 
is the motive of all engaged in the evil work, 
from the highest to the lowest. The ablest 
schemer may claim the lion's share of the prey ; 
but even the scoundrel curs that yelp at his 
heels hope for at least a bone ; and thus all join 
in with right good-will to hunt it down. 

But in national affairs truth, always precious, 
is of preeminent importance from the magni- 
tude of the interests involved. Great facts should 
not be darkened ; for this is blotting out the 
stars by which the ship of state is steered. 'No 
great statesman should be calunmiated — not only 
because of the personal injury, but because truly 
good and great men are not so numerous that 
the nation can afford to lay any of them aside 
without reason. In reply to this, it may be 
urged that nobody attaches any importance to 
what is said or done in political strife, and con- 
sequently there is no real slander. This is a 
false plea. If party-editors and party-operatoi^ 
do not expect to be believed, why do they con- 
coct their falsehoods ? Are they mere amateur 
liars, expecting no returns for their labour? 
They are not so bhnd as this. They know that, 
although the more intelligent and judicious may 
not receive their sayings, yet the weak and the 



228 



THE RIGHT WAY. 



ignorant believe most firmly, and thus the direc- 
tion of votes is determined, and questions of 
policy are settled. 

Thus in political, as well as in private life, 
slander not only wrongs the individual, but in- 
flicts injury upon the public, and should there- 
fore be as carefliUy avoided by the conscientious. 
But while we scorn to plunge our own hands 
into the niass of corruption, let us remember that 
in morals, as well as in civil law, a man is re- 
sponsible for what is done by his agents. If we, 
for the sake of their aid, knowingly patronize 
reckless declaimers and a corrupt press, we are 
accessory to their acts, and guilty of their sins. 
The follies and the crimes of the opposite party 
furnish no apology for wrong, since we are com- 
manded to " overcome evil with good.'''' ]N^or can 
falsehood be justified on the ground that no one 
expects candour, and honesty, and fair dealing, 
in partisan warfare. The more prevalent any 
vice may be, the greater the necessity for lifting 
up a standard against it. Truth is as valuable 
in national affairs as in individual concerns, and 
all good men will hold it as sacred. 

n. Duties enjoined by this pkecept. 

1. The love of the truth, in all its parts, and 
in all its fulness. 

The chief treasures of man are not his gold 
and silver, but his ideas, the thoughts, theories, 
and systems, which have been collected, or 



NINTH COMMANDMENT. 229 



laboriously wrought out by the intellect, and 
treasured up in the memory, or traced upon the 
record. One word may inflame a state — one 
thought may revolutionize a continent. A sin- 
gle fact, which a few words may suffice to convey, 
may save a nation from famine or pestilence ; 
and a single falsehood may lie for centuries in 
the path of improvement, a bar to all progress. 
The supposition that force may be lawfully em- 
ployed in winning converts to the true religion, 
caused the slaughter of the Waldenses, and the 
massacre of St. Bartholomew's-day. The con- 
viction that conscience should be free, steered 
the May-Flower across the Atlantic, and planted 
the first colony on the ITew-England shore. A. 
false idea relative to the millennium, caused the 
Crusades, with their profuse expenditure of blood 
and treasure. The belief that men can govern 
themselves, has erected the noblest republic that 
the world has ever seen, soon to become the 
greatest power of the globe. The glorious gos- 
pel of Christ is a system of truth, the main fea- 
tures of which may be told in a few words ; and 
yet it is ''Hhe power of God vmIo salvation^ 
For these reasons men should value the truth, 
and treasure it up as their chief wealth. Every 
truth in history, philosophy, morals, and religion, 
is of great price. The most trivial fact may, at 
some unexpected moment, prove the one thing 
needful in the accomplishment of some vast en- 
terprise. Even a word, like the magic syllables 



230 



THE EIGHT WAY. 



of the Eastern tale, may cause some ponderous 
door to open, and set free the captives of veteran 
error. Every false idea destroyed is an obstacle 
removed from the path of improvement ; every 
new truth demonstrated is a step onward and 
upward. Men should therefore love and rever- 
ence the truth, and cling to it with theii* whole 
strength. 

2. Courage in adhering to the truth. 

In days gone by, the world has seen noble 
examples of devotion to the ti'uth. Thousands 
have laid down their lives, rather than deny 
Jesus, or confess Jupiter to be a true god. They 
''had trial of cruel mocking s a/nd scourging s j 
yea^ moreover^ ofhonds and im^^imnment. They 
were stoned^ they were sa/wn asv/nder^ were 
tempted^ were slain with the swordP IsTo man 
ought to acquiesce in what he believes to be 
rehgious error, no matter what penalty he may 
incur by his rej ection of it. In choosing a Chm^ch, 
in connexion with which to make a profession 
of religion, we should be guided by an earnest 
desire for the truth. And when we have de- 
cided that a denomination possesses a formula 
of doctrines and a system of usages more in ac- 
cordance with divine truth than the othei-s, we 
are bound to ally ourselves to that Church. The 
prejudices of early training, the desire to accom- 
pany friends, the false shame of casting off the 
faith of om- fathers, the anticipated effect upoi? 
our pecuniary interests, or upon our position in 



NINTH COMMANDMENT. 



231 



society, are not to turn us from the way to wMch 
our convictions point. We are commanded to 
" huy the truth, and sell it not.^^ 

Xor siLonld we lightly esteem truth connected 
with any of the departments of human knowl- 
edge. The thi-eatened tortm-es of the Inquisition 
caused Galileo to renounce publicly his theory of 
the daily revolution of the earth. He made oath 
that he would still teach the old doctrine that 
the earth is immovable ; and yet, during a pause 
in the ceremony, he whispered to a friend : " But 
it does move, nevertheless." Here the fame of 
the philosopher was tarnished by the weakness 
of the man. He should have died, rather than 
sustain falsehood by a solemn oath. Whatever 
we honestly believe to be the truth, we should 
adhere to at all hazards and at all cost. If need 
be, we should " buy the truth " by sufferings ; nor 
should it be sold for any price, whether it come 
in the form of wealth, honour, or ease. E"o 
fragment of verity is to be sacrificed as of too 
little note to be worth our care. Editors, min- 
isters of the gospel, pubhshers, and public teach- 
ers, who influence the opinions of multitudes, 
are under especial obligations to be faithful wit- 
nesses, who scorn deception and hate error. 

3. Regard for our own good name. 

Life consists in action, and a good reputation 
is an important element of power. If a man is 
in repute for wisdom, truth, and benevolence, 
he possesses that which will enable him to labour 



232 



THE RIGHT WAY. 



more effectually for his own and others' welfare. 
Every man is under obligation to deserve a good 
name, that he may thus increase his effective- 
ness in the world. The good man reproves evil, 
and his rebukes fall with withering effect upon 
it. He points others to the right way, and his 
teachings have weight and substance. He la- 
bours for the elevation of mankind, and his 
acknowledged probity and good judgment 
commend his words to pubhc attention, and 
cause them to sink deep into the memory and 
the heart. 

Yet a man's own conduct may cause his repu- 
tation to be worse than he really deserves. He 
may be a random talker and jester, and the 
language which he utters in his thoughtless sport 
may cause him to be looked upon with suspicion. 
In matters which he esteems of little concern, he 
may act recklessly and foolishly ; and those but 
partially acquainted with him may infer his whole 
character from his inconsideration in trivial 
things. Thus, by his own conduct, a man's re- 
putation may become worse than he deserves, 
and his strength among his fellow-men be shorn. 
Every truly wise and conscientious man will so 
order his words and actions that he may build 
up a good reputation, and attain a position of 
honour and influence in society. And he will 
use all right means to defend himself against the 
attacks of the cool traducer, and the aspersions 
of the thoughtless babbler. 



NINTH COMMANDMENT. 233 



4. Regard for the reputation of others. 

A good man's just reputation is one element 
of his social strength, one source of his happi- 
ness, one part of the foundation upon which he 
builds his success in business, one cherished item 
of the inheritance which he expects to transmit 
to his children. To all this he is justly entitled. 
'No one should wantonly strip him of his due in- 
fluence in the community, waste a portion of his 
happiness, mar his business advantages, or cause 
his name to bring a stain upon his family. Yet 
all this wrong may be inflicted by the careless or 
malicious tongue. An aimless tattler may scat- 
ter words which are "firebrands, arrows, and 
death," to the innocent. An unmeaning jest, 
an uncharitable surmise, or an angry sarcasm, 
may smite with the sting of the scorpion ; and 
unjust suspicions may rack with all the tortures 
of the Inquisition. A good man will be careful 
of the reputation of others, knowing that every 
individual, and every collection of individuals, 
are entitled to the full benefit of a reputation 
corresponding with their true character, and he 
will therefore " set a watch upon his tongue." 

5. A disposition not to hide the true character 
of bad men. 

We may sin by denying the truth as well as 
by asserting falsehood, and there are occasions 
when to withhold the truth is a wrong done to 
others. There are certain rules, however, which 
must be observed by those who would speak of 



234 



THE RIGHT WAY. 



the evil deeds and the vicious characters of those 
around them. 

(1.) The truth must be needed for the protec- 
tion of the innocent. Silence is a duty when it 
will serve no good pm-pose to reveal what is 
generally unknown. For example, if the former 
errors of a man, now truly reformed, are not 
known in the place of his present residence, no 
one should wantonly bring a stain upon him by 
revealing the past. But if we have reason to 
believe that the apparent reformation is but a 
cloak put on to hide dishonourable designs, we 
must put the unsuspecting on their guard against 
him. 

(2.) When truth is thus demanded, and we 
undertake to supply it, we must be sure that we 
convey the right impressions. Even the truth 
can be told in such a manner as to deceive. A 
single hasty word or act, altogether at variance 
with a man's general character and conduct, and 
arising from circumstances which do not occm' 
twice in a hfe-time, may be set forth in such a 
manner as to make such an impression as the 
truth will not justify. Information, if given at 
all, must be given correctly and fiilly. 

(3.) "We must not be influenced by evil pas- 
sions. 

HI feeling has wonderful power to render other 
people's faults visible. Sometimes when a per- 
son fancies that he has been treated unjustly or 
ungenerously by another, he discovers it to be 



NINTH COMMANDMENT. 



235 



his imperatiye duty to divulge against his op- 
ponent something which he has long known, but 
never before mentioned. In such cases there is 
a strong infusion of mahcious motive, and he 
who feels it necessary to speak of the sins of 
others, should first ask himself the question, 
whether passion or conscience is the actuating 
principle? 

With these restrictions as to occasion, manner, 
and motive, it is lawful for us to speak of the bad 
character and evil conduct of others. Yea, we 
must speak, or be condemned for our silence. 
For a bad man to be called good is as unjust to 
the public, as slander is unjust to him who suf- 
fers thereby. 

6. A disposition to ward off slander and de- 
traction from the guiltless. 

To suppress the truth is often as criminal as 
the utterance of the worst falsehood. Circum- 
stances may seem to criminate the guiltless, or 
by falsehood and perjury the guilty may strive 
to save themselves from punishment, by turning 
the sword of justice upon the heads of the inno- 
cent. Slander may fix upon its victim with the 
fierce bite of the hungry wolf, or chase its foot- 
steps with the tireless hate of the bloodhound. 
The fate of the pursued may be in our hands, but 
our worldly interests and our selfish fears demand 
silence. If we heed the temptation ; if we suffer 
the guilty to escape at the expense of the inno- 
cent ; if we suffer the unoffending to lie crushed 



236 



THE EIGHT WAY. 



beneath a weight of obloquy, which we might 
remove with one word, but will not, we are little 
less guilty than the principal actors in the wrong. 
We make ourselves accessory to the crime. 
Our duty to our neighbour is to let neither our 
speech nor our silence bear false witness against 
him. We may injure him as effectually and as 
criminally in the latter mode as in the former. 
God binds us to deliver the innocent and defend 
the helpless. 

in. Eeasons foe the enactment of this law. 

1. Truth is of untold value to man. In mor- 
als, philosophy, and religion, " truth makes 
him free." As it has been already said, his 
richest treasures are ideas. A single thought is 
often the chief corner-stone of his noblest struc- 
tures. A solitary fact has often pierced the 
depths of error, and dispersed the darkness into 
which the eye of earnest inquiry had gazed long 
and in vain. A single idea has broken the chains 
of ignorance, and bridged the gulf which had 
caused nations to halt in their progress from bar- 
barism to civilization. Human happiness, from 
its lowest level to its loftiest heights, is based upon 
thoughts. Some of these spring from the exer- 
cise of the senses. Some fall from heaven, 
sparkles of brightness from the throne of eternal 
light. Others are wrought out slowly and labori- 
ously by reasoning and reflection. The results 
of each historic period are heired by the age that 



NINTH COMMANDMENT. 



237 



comes after it, and the foliage, blossoms, and 
fruit of one era grow from the buds of its prede- 
cessor. An error, apparently of little import- 
ance in itself, niay keep the race stationary for 
generations ; and a single discovery, seemingly 
of small value, may prove the magic key which 
shall unlock the golden gates of science, and dis- 
close untrodden paths and new fountains of truth 
to the mental wayfarer. 

Hence, it is the duty of every man to revere 
the truth and search for it as for hid treasures. 
The more hands there are delving in the mine, 
the more minds there are garnering up this 
treasure, the more rapid will be the accumula- 
tion. Each should observe, compare, invent, re- 
flect, in his appropriate sphere. The falness of 
truth is inexhaustible. Its germs, like those of 
the vegetable kingdom, are everywhere. They 
fill the dust of the earth, and float in every breeze 
of heaven. Happy he whose keen eye can de- 
tect, and whose hands can grasp them. But 
every man can accomplish something, either in 
the discovery or the dissemination of truth. In 
science, the accidental discoveries of untaught 
men often furnish facilities for progress, and en- 
able investigation to place its engines on vantage 
ground, and press on to new conquests. Hence 
every man ought to seek truth, honestly and 
earnestly, and thus increase the amount of hu- 
man knowledge. Every Russian, driving his 
vehicle to the site of the new city of St. Peters^ 



238 



THE EIGHT WAT. 



burgh, brought with him, by royal mandate, a 
certain portion of building stone, and soon a 
noble metropolis arose from the marshes of Fin- 
land. Thus let every man bring his portion of 
material, though it be but a pebble, to erect the 
temple of knowledge, and its lofty top will rise 
more rapidly above the clouds, and glitter with 
brighter sunlight. 

2. In legal affairs the preservation of the truth 
is necessary to secure from wrong the property, 
character, and life of the citizen. 

It is God's wiU that civil governments should 
exist, and that they should be a " terror to evil 
doers, and a praise to them that do well." But 
the rulers cannot be expected to have personal 
knowledge of the language and actions of all 
their subjects. The executive officer must base 
his decisions, in most cases, upon the testimony 
of others, who have seen, and heard, and known. 
If those who alone can know, testify falsely, or 
withhold the whole or a part of the truth, wrong 
is done either to the individual or to society. 
Either the innocent are involved in unjust pen- 
alties, or the guilty escape "unwhipt of justice," 
and thus the safeguards of society are over- 
thrown. Courts of justice would be utter mock- 
ery if it were impossible to obtain reliable testi- 
mony. He who would offer false oaths and per- 
jured evidence, and " teach men so," would sub- 
vert all government, and bring back the reign 
of anarchy and brute force. And he who, 



NINTH COMMANDMENT. 



239 



througli fear or interest, refuses to take an active 
part in the conviction of criminals, either as an 
officer or as a witness, would effect the same 
ruinous result. "When flagrant offences are com- 
mitted, no good citizen will be backward in in- 
forming the proper officers, and in lending his 
influence in all right ways to support the author- 
ities and suppress crime. 

3. Good men are entitled, in private life, to 
all the advantages of a reputation in accordance 
with their true character. Every man is en- 
titled to what he earns, whether it be fame or 
property, and there are certain mental and moral 
qualities which have always given weight and 
influence to the possessor. Wisdom and probity 
are rewarded with respect and confidence ; and 
thus he who is endowed with them, is the gainer 
in his business, and in the honest satisfaction 
arising from the conscious possession of a good 
name. A mechanic, a lawyer, or a day-labourer, 
known to be honourable in his dealings as well 
as skilful in his vocation, has a decided advan- 
tage over those of doubtful character. 

If a man deserves a good reputation, but has 
been deprived of it by defamation and malice, 
he suffers undeserved pain and loss. His peace 
of mind is disturbed, his happiness is marred, 
and obstacles are thrown in the way of his worldly 
prosperity. Though honest, he is charged with 
fraud ; though truthful, he lies under the obloquy 
of being fklse ; and while he has all the qualities 



240 



THE EIGHT WAY. 



wMcli men agree to honour, he is covered with 
disgrace and shame. Suppose he is a stranger : 
at once every eye glances suspicion, and he be- 
comes alienated from a community, of which he 
might be the ornament. Suppose the victim of 
detraction belongs to the sex whose reputation 
is proverbially fragile, she at once becomes an 
outcast, every lip curls with scorn, and insult 
encompasses her on every side ; and the society, 
of which she is perhaps fitted to be the charm 
and the pride, unite to drive her from their 
midst. 'No age, no position in life, is beyond 
the reach of the slanderer. Youth and inno- 
cence fall by its envenomed arrows, and old age 
goes down with sorrow to the dust. The king 
upon the throne, and the beggar at his footstool ; 
the judge upon the bench, and the minister in 
the pulpit ; the merchant at his desk, and the 
farmer at his plough, are alike liable to be stab- 
bed by the cowardly weapon of the malicious 
traducer, or the random darts of the reckless 
tattler. For these reasons, the just and benevo- 
lent Jehovah interposes for the defence of the 
guiltless, and saith, Thou shalt not hea/r false 
witness against thy neighbour.''^ 

4. The interests of society demand that the 
real character of every man be known. 

In our own land, the community choose their 
own magistrates ; and unless character is ascer- 
tained, errors will be committed in the selection. 
And in private life, in the various dealings 



NINTH COMMANDMENT. 241 

which occur between individuals, marriages, 
business contracts, buying, selling, and employ- 
ing, each party is compelled to confide in the 
other, to a greater or less extent ; and it is neces- 
sary for the safety of each, that he should know 
something of the other's character. If a man is 
indolent, improvident, dishonest, treacherous, 
passionate, or malicious, it is well for those 
around him to know it, that they may be on 
their guard. If he is honest, but heedless and 
unreliable in business transactions, it ought to 
be known, that none may suffer loss by his re- 
missness. The brutal and the sensual should be 
known, that they may be shunned. The gam- 
bler, the swindler, and the debauchee, should 
be branded, that all may flee from them. 

On the other hand, the man of ability and 
principle ought to be known as such to society, 
that his noble qualities may be rendered avail- 
able for the public good. Every pure and lovely 
character should be known, that it may be ap- 
preciated. The gem, slumbering m the ocean's 
" dark, unfathomed caves," would, if raised to 
the surface, shed its " purest ray serene " upon 
many eyes, and kindle many a dark spot into 
brightness. Every person, great and small, of 
every degree of mental strength, of virtue and 
of vice, ought to be judged of accurately, that 
society may avail itself of the wise and the good, 
defend itself against the evil, and purify itself 
from the vile. " The truth, the whole truth, and 
11 



242 



THE RIGHT WAY. 



nothing but tlie truth," should be uttered with 
reference to all, that reputation may always cor- 
respond with character. To slander the good is 
to inflict a twofold injury : they are wronged, 
and society is deprived of at least a part of the 
benefit which might have been derived from 
their good qualities. By attributing to the 
vicious a character which they do not deserve, 
we give them advantages which, of right, do not 
belong to them, and furnish them with new fa- 
cilities for the accomplishment of evil purposes. 
To defame the virtuous, is to wrong them, and to 
wrong the public; to lavish false praise upon 
the vicious, is to wrong society ; and in either 
case it is a transgression of the law against false 
witness. 

5. God interposes in behalf of the truth and 
of reputation, because they are constantly ex- 
posed to attack. 

Every unholy passion finds an outlet at the 
lips. Through them, anger pours his falsehoods, 
and thunders his curses; and malice wreathes 
them into a hypocritic smile, and distills poison 
as gently as the dew falls upon Hermon, or the 
south winds sigh through the groves of spices. 
Temptations are numerous and strong ; they 
abound in every walk of social life, and spread 
their net for all feet. In mercantile life, in 
Church affairs, in political strife, in the foolish 
rivalries of vanity, in dealings of every kind, 
and in collisions of every description, a lie often 



NINTH COMMANDMENT. 



243 



seems the readiest means of gaining an advan- 
tage, or of avoiding a difficulty. The school- 
boy at his desk, and the senator in his place of 
power, are tempted, and perhaps fall. The me- 
chanic may declare his clumsy workmanship 
perfect ; the merchant protest that he is selling 
at ruinous prices ; the lawyer shed tears, and 
wail over the pretended wrongs of the rich knave 
whom he is trying to worm out of the hands of 
justice ; and even the divine may preach a splen- 
did sermon, and omit to tell his auditors that it 
is not his own. 

'Not only do temptations to deceive abound, 
but temptations to bear false witness directly 
" against our neighbour," spring up in every 
path. The child fancies that, by an untruth, he 
can screen himself from punishment, at the ex- 
pense of his playmate ; the farmer decries the 
lands of his neighbour, that he may secure an 
advantageous bargain for his own ; and the 
scheming pohtician, ravenous for office and 
emoluments, slanders his opponent without mea- 
sure or end. The ambitious historian makes a 
narrative more beautiful and touching, by in- 
troducing as facts certain inventions of his own ; 
the strolling beggar, with a face of simulated 
woe, presents his forged certificate of sorrows 
undergone ; and the village belle drives her rival 
from the field by sly insinuations against her 
fair fame. 

Thus to the dim vision of fallen men, false- 



244: 



THE EIGHT WAY. 



hood seems to promise much, aid in securing 
the objects at which avarice and ambition aim. 
Fame, pleasure, revenge, money, power, all 
seem at times easy to be caught in the net of a 
skilfully-devised lie. And how quickly it can 
be accomplished ; a few movements of the lips, 
the expenditure of a breath, and the prize is se- 
cure. And it is evident, that where temptations 
so frequently occur ; where the offence is so ea- 
sily committed, and the effects are so ruinous, 
there are abundant reasons for divine interpo- 
sition and divine law. Thus a voice of warning 
sounds in the ear of him who would leave the 
right way. Thus cherubim and a flaming sword 
are placed for the defence of the innocent. 

6. The effects of the habit of dealing in un- 
truths are bad upon the transgressor. 

Lies generally spring from bad motives, and 
consequently tend to cultivate evil passions, and 
render their reign more tyrannical. Lying tends 
to the destruction of all virtue ; and the transi- 
tion from this to other forms of vice is easy, and 
the path short. A single species of sin seldom 
remains long alone in the human soul. Liiquity 
is the " vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Go- 
morrah;" and its fruit, like grapes, grows in 
clusters. Falsehood has long borne the mark 
of deep disgrace. 'No insult stings more keenly 
than a charge of lying, as this seems so low a 
vice as to argue a fitness for all other crimes. 
There is some truth in this inference. While 



NINTH COMMANDMENT. 245 



they are truthful, there is hope that those who 
have been overcome of temptation, will return 
to the path of rectitude; but when this virtue 
has been abandoned, there seems little ground 
to look for reformation. The liar looks upon 
himself with contempt and loathing ; and when 
self-respect is gone, the offender can make but 
feeble resistance to the allurements of sin. Thus 
ruinous to the transgressor, to his victim, and to 
the interests of society, we find false witness ; 
and God's wisdom and benevolence are abun- 
dantly manifested in its prohibition. Let each, 
then, " sjpeak the truth in his hecurt^^ remember- 
ing that " lying lips cure an ahomvaat/ion to the 
Lord:' 



246 



THE EIGHT WAY. 



XL 

TENTH COMMANDMENT. 

THOU SHALT NOT COVET THY NEIGHBOUK'S HOUSE, THOU SHALT NOT 
COVET THY NEIGHBOUK's WIFE, NOR HIS MAN-SERVANT, NOR HIS 
MAID-SERVANT, NOR HIS OX, NOR HIS ASS, NOB ANYTHING THAT 
IS THY NEIGHBOUR'S. 

The beginnings of sin are seldom visible. The 
first unholy word which, falls from the lips may 
be heard, and the first overt act may be detected ; 
but these are not the early germ, but the ripe 
fruit. We may trace a long course of crime 
back to the first open transgression of the series ; 
but there we must cease our researches, and sub- 
stitute conj ecture for investigation. The explorer 
of some newly discovered continent may trace 
the mighty river upwards, through all its mean- 
derings, till the little spring is before him which 
sends forth its silver stream as the first boon of 
earth to the rolhng fiood. But is the rivulet 
created by the fountain from which it bubbles ? 
Nay, it rolls on for leagues before it reaches the 
surface. It filters through beds of sand ; it pul- 
sates through the granite arteries of the everlast- 
ing hills ; it winds through caverns into whose 
darkness human eye never gazed, and after 
many lonely, darkened wanderings, it rolls its 
waters to the sun, and leaps down the mountain- 



TENTH COMMANDMENT. 247 



side. Thus every act of man is but the outbub- 
bling of unseen waters, the breaking up of some 
" great deep " of the secret heart. For this rea- 
son, He who looks at the heart has said, " TJiou 
shalt not covet,^^ for " lust^^^ or unlawful desire, 
" hringeth forth sin.'''' 

I. "What is here peohibited. 

1. The undue love of property. 

Avarice sometimes becomes a disease. The 
miser does not inquire, " What shall I eat, and 
what shall I drink, and wherewithal shall I be 
clothed ?" On the contrary, he denies himself 
every comfort, and plunges into all the evils 
of beggary, that he may hoard up useless gold. 
He is a slave, laden with food and raiment which 
he dares not touch, and thus he perishes with 
cold and hunger in the midst of abundance. 
Reason condemns, humanity rebukes, conscience 
reproaches him with the multiplied sins of his 
grovelling hfe, yet he has no power to change. 
He mourns over the daily pence which buy his 
food, and pays them out with as much remorse 
as if they were coined of his heart's blood ; and 
when he drinks, he feels a sort of mean gratitude 
to Providence that water is so cheap. He is 
alone, and " there is not another yet he starves 
himself to heap up riches, "not knowing who 
shall gather them." In old age, when the grave 
opens before him, he is most eager to increase his 
hoards, even when on the point of losing them for- 



248 



THE EIGHT WAT. 



ever. As lie smks in the last struggle, his anxi- 
ous thoughts cluster around his gold ; as death 
drags him down, he catches back conyulsively 
at his treasure, and his last breath is expended 
in a groan at the extravagant price of coffins and 
tombstones, and the enormous fees of grave- 
diggers. Thus he lives a beggar's Hfe, and dies 
leaving his wealth to others, too frequently to 
heirs who laugh merrily as they open his full 
coffers, and waste their contents in riotous living. 

2. The advantages arising from the possession 
of wealth should not be overrated. That which 
we earnestly desire, but do not possess, we are 
liable to estimate too highly. The invahd fan- 
cies that health, in itself, is bhss ; but when health 
is regained, he is still dissatisfied and unhappy. 
The farmer and the sailor, the mechanic, the 
merchant, and the physician, can each perceive 
in the lot of others good things which belong 
not to him ; but if he exchanges, he finds the 
joys less and the trials greater than he had an- 
ticipated. In the same way, the poor man over- 
rates the advantages of riches, fancying that they 
are the grand remedy for all earthly ill. He 
cannot see the corroding cares which encompass 
wealth. The enjoyment arising from the mere 
possession of property soon decays when the 
novelty of possessing is gone. The pleasures 
which wealth can purchase are httle superior to 
the enjoyments of the honest, industrious poor. 
The plainer, but more wholesome food of the 



TENTH COMMANDMENT. 249 

labourer is as sweet to Ms taste, as the rich man's 
heaped up feast is to his palled sense. The 
labourer's health is better, his sleep is sweeter, 
and his heart lighter. The public consideration 
which wealth bestows upon a man is hollow and 
unsatisfactory. The man of wealth knows that 
the trulj wise and good do not respect him one 
whit more on account of his possessions ; and he 
feels more insulted than honoured by the ob- 
sequious flatteries and cringing bows of those 
who seek to make merchandise of his acquaint- 
ance and good will. He knows that although he 
may receive more smiles and fervent pressures 
of the hand than he would if he was poor, yet 
the overplus are bestowed not upon him, but 
upon his money. Many vexatious things, too, 
belong to the management of a large property — 
the treachery of agents, the dishonesty of debtors, 
the ill-will of rivals, the angry murmm's of those 
who hoped to reap something from their ac- 
quaintance with him, the fear of losses, the dread 
of poverty — all these, hke so many furies, beset 
the soul of the rich man, and he is no more happy 
in his abundance, than are the poor in their bare 
sufficiency. Yet the poor look only at the glit- 
ter of the gold, and think not of the weight with 
which it presses upon the brain and the heart. 

3. Undue haste to be rich is another form of 
the evil. 

The modes by which wealth is suddenly ob- 
tained are almost invariably unrighteous. " He 

11* 



250 



THE EIGHT WAY. 



that maketh haste to le rich^ shall not he inruh 
centP If a man finds a gold mine in Ms field, 
lie becomes rich, at once without crime ; but this 
sudden wealth was neither anticipated nor sought. 
K he discovered the mine before he purchased 
the field, but kept the discovery secret till the 
land was secured, he coveted his neighbour's 
possessions, and obtained his wealth dishonestlj. 
A man may become suddenly rich by marriage ; 
but if the prospect of wealth caused him to 
" make haste " in his wooing, he is not innocent. 
Successful speculation sometimes brings in a sud- 
den flood of wealth ; but speculation is uncertain 
and unsafe. Where immense gains are hoped 
for, there may be immense losses, and the result 
be ruin instead of riches. In fact, the risk may 
be so great, that the whole transaction assumes 
the moral type of gambling. The only sure and 
honest mode of seeking property is to create 
value, and this is almost invariably a slow pro- 
cess. There are other ways to grasp at the 
prize, but they are, in general, too selfish or too 
hazardous to be innocent. Of the multitudes 
who engage in trade in our cities, the majority, 
perhaps, become bankrupt at some period of 
their business career, and are compelled to be- 
gin anew ; and where one acquires wealth sud- 
denly, many lose all. There is a fault, if not a 
sin, in this matter. Too many operations in the 
commercial world partake of the nature of gam- 
bling. Those who win may fill taeii' purses 



TENTH COMMANDMENT. 251 

rapidly, bnt tlie failure of a single element in 
their tangled calculations brings tliem down 
with a crash. K men could be content with a 
slower process, failures would be less frequent 
in our mercantile circles. Thus it is evident that 
the various modes by which men hope to become 
suddenly rich are either too uncertain to war- 
rant outlay and effort, or else too dangerous or 
selfish to be right, and the truth of the declara- 
tion that he who " makes haste to be rich shall 
not be innocent," is abundantly vindicated. Let 
no one, then, delude himself with golden dreams. 
" They that will be rich fall into a snare." 

4. Another modification of the evil prohibited 
in this command manifests itself in envying 
those who possess more than we do. 

Meanness and selfishness always look with a 
sullen eye upon the prosperity of others. A man 
given up to the dominion of self cannot bear to 
see another possess what he lacks. Especially 
does it grieve him to be outstripped by those 
whose claims to success are less, as he fancies, 
than his own. To see another dwelling in a 
more beautiful house, attended by more faithful 
domestics, or even drawn by a more valuable 
horse, troubles his ungenerous soul. Every good 
thing upon which his hungry eyes fall, he would 
fain transfer to himself, lawfully or unlawfully. 
But that which most provokes his envy is supe- 
rior wealth, as that seems to include almost all 
that appetite and avarice look upon as desirable. 



^/52 THE EIGHT WAT. 

In wealth the dim eye of the enyious poor man 
sees nntold bliss ; and he feels the same hostility 
to the rich, as if their abundance, as well as his 
poverty, were their crime. The ignorant, the 
indolent, and the dissolute, easily fall into the 
temptation to envy the rich, and envy soon shdes 
down into hatred. Consequently unprincipled 
political schemers, when in sore need of votes, 
seldom fail to play upon this string. " The rich 
against the poor" has been the banner-cry of 
many a suicidal contest of one class against an- 
other. And he who stirred up the strife, and 
shouted on his dupes to the conflict, professing 
with loudest voice and brazen face that he was 
the friend of the people, sought only to build his 
fortunes on the ruins of others. The keen-sight- 
ed vulture follows the combatants to the field, 
only that he may gorge himself upon the flesh 
of the slain. 

This same suspicious, ungenerous spirit, some- 
times slily creeps, in one guise or another, into 
Christian societies, and creates ruptures. The 
poorer members perhaps fancy that the rich ones 
are fond of office and power, and that they them- 
selves are not entrusted with various honoura- 
ble duties and positions simply because they are 
not wealthy. Consequently they begin to feel 
slighted and sore. They scan with suspicious 
eyes every movement made by those who are 
higher than they in the scale of this world. 
They begin to scowl, and grow cold ; and the 



TENTH COMMANDMENT. 253 



poison finally working np to the surface, they 
mutter about "pride," " aristocracy," and demand 
if a few ought to rule the Church, to the exclu- 
sion of the rest. The other party is sure to hear 
of these complaints and unbrotherly insinuations, 
and at once anger and ill-will are roused. Hard 
words are exchanged, and parties form ; plots and 
counter-plots are contrived to secure the suprem- 
acy ; strife rages, piety dies out, the Chm^ch is 
rendered contemptible in the eyes of the world, 
and its history is written in the jest-book of the 
infidel and the scoffer. 

But whether it be in the Chm^ch or the State 
that this evil shows its ill-favoured front, it should 
meet the frowns of all religious and sensible 
men. It is a poison which "worketh death." 
Even if the pride and ambition charged upon 
the rich really exist, to be denouncing them con- 
tinually will strengthen envy and hate, passions 
as bad, at least, as the errors which call them 
forth ; and thus the two classes will feel the ill 
effects of growing alienation. Every reflecting 
mind sees that the poor are benefitted by the 
presence of the rich, and wealth would, in most 
of its forms, be valueless without the presence 
of the poor. 

5. The covetousness forbidden sometimes man- 
ifests itself in the desire of those things which 
cannot be obtained lawfully. 

Sometimes, indeed, persons distress themselves 
with invincible desires for those things which 



254 



THE EIGHT WAY. 



cannot be obtained at all, and thus overlook tbe 
good they have, in yain regrets over deficiencies 
that can never be repaired. The jonng lady 
who covets another's classic features, flowing 
locks, or brilliant eyes, not only fails to obtain 
the charms of her rival, bnt makes her own face 
less attractive by the air of ill hnmom* which her 
foolish envy spreads over it. He who repines 
at his own lack of the genins which he beholds 
in another, is employing his time in a manner 
which prevents his making good nse of the abili- 
ties which he really has. The invalid, who 
covets the strength of his neighbour, is giving 
way to a morbid feeling which will depress him 
still more. To cherish uneasy desire for that 
which can never be ours, whether it be health 
or beauty, fame or fortune, power or pleasure, is 
not only vain and useless, but injurious, and con- 
sequently wrong. 

But sometimes the things desired may be ob- 
tained by a violation of right. Thy neighbour's 
house may, by fraud, become thine. His beasts 
may be stolen, or taken away by force, and 
his servant may be bribed from his allegiance. 
A treacherous dagger-thrust may remove thy 
neighbour himself, and, in time, his widow may 
possibly be won. A man's possessions of any 
kind can never be made secure from the rapacity 
of his fellows. God, therefore, interposes in de- 
fence of the right, and begins at the heart. He 
does not forbid our admiring the farm, the house. 



I 

TENTH COMMANDMENT. 255 

or any part of tlie goods of onr neighbour ; nor, 
if the owner be wilKng, does lie condemn the 
wish to purchase them at a fair valuation. It is 
not unlawful to admire the virtuous behaviour 
and gentle disposition of thy neighbour's wife, 
and deem these qualities desirable in a life- 
companion. So long as the more general rule, 
" Tliou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,^'' is 
not infringed, all is well. But when avarice 
becomes a Jezebel, who commands E"aboth to 
be slain, that his vineyard may be obtained, it 
is the mover of all evil, the fruitful source of all 
kinds of crime. In this sense, therefore, thou 
shalt not covet cmything that is thy neigh- 
hour'sP 

n. The duties enjoined by this commandment. 
1. The observance of the law of God in the 
heart. 

Sin makes its dwelling-place in the secret 
chambers of the soul. It begins in the un- 
seen, unexpressed thought. Unresisted there, it 
breathes out its poisonous breath, and taints the 
whole nature. There it spreads its bright canvass, 
and paints its alluring pictures, firing the pas- 
sions, and hurrying its victim on to evil deeds. 
If virtue resists at the beginning, an easy victory 
is gained ; if deferred too long, the contest ends 
in defeat. The mind is the battle-field of good 
and evil, where secret passions and unuttered 
thoughts wrestle in stillness and in silence, and 



256 



THE EIGHT WAY. 



■where every real victory is lost and won. ^^As 
a mem thinketh in his hea/rt^ so is heP Ko man 
gins outwardly, until he has first transgressed in 
secret thought. " Out of the hem^t proceed evil 
thoughts^ mwrders^ adulteries ^fornications^ thefts^ 
false witness^ Masjphemies — these are the things 
which defile a mam^P The heart is the fountain ; 
and unholy language and evil deeds are its bitter 
waters. Achan transgressed when he hid in the 
Band a " goodly Babylonish garment, and two 
hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold 
but he first " coveted them." The servant who 
is described as being detected in the midst of 
his drunkenness and violence, is represented as 
first " soAjing in his heart, My lord delayeth his 
comingP And even the first human transgres- 
sor " saw that the tree was good for food, ojnd 
that it was pleasant to the eyes, a/ifid to he desired,^^ 
before she put forth her hand to the forbidden 
fruit. Thus it is with every transgression. As 
the blade never thrusts itself above the surface 
of the earth till the seed has first been planted, 
and imbibing the moisture of the ground, has 
germinated in darkness and silence ; so the overt 
act is never committed till the heart has become 
wrong. This commandment, then, turns away 
from mere externals, and tracks the monster sin 
back to his foul den, and seeks to slay him there. 

K this law were universally observed, sin 
would cease to fill the world with contentions 
and bloodshed. Selfish desire, manifested about 



TENTH COMMANDMENT. 257 

trifles, inyades the family circle, and turns Eden 
into a desert. lu tlie State, selfish plots and 
aims bring parties into collision, and fill the 
whole atmosphere with their brawls and clamonr. 
Among the nations, unholy ambition arrays host 
against host, carries fire and sword through plain 
and valley, and makes earth fat with the blood 
of the slain. Open violence, secret treachery, 
all the various modes in which man wars with 
his brother man, are but the various channels 
of the same dark tide of lawless desire. How 
needful, then, that every man should watch the 
motions of his own thoughts. While all around 
are commending his virtue, there may be in his 
heart ideal actions, which, if brought to the sur- 
face, would fill the soul with shame, and cause 
every ear that hears to tingle. To escape sins 
against his neighbour, man must learn to harbour 
no thoughts, no desires, at variance with love to 
him. 

2. Generous sympathy with our neighbour is 
made a duty. 

In condemning a sin, the divine law also in- 
culcates the opposite virtue. When it denounces 
selfishness, it commends benevolence, love, char- 
ity — all the kindly affections and generous emo- 
tions. Instead of lamenting the happiness and 
exulting in the misery which we behold, we are 
exhorted to " weejp with those who we&p^ mid re- 
joice with those who rejoiceP The prosperity of 
those around us, whether kindred or strangers, 



258 



THE EIGHT WAY. 



should jS.ll our hearts with gladness ; and if ad- 
versity overwhelms them, our eyes should flow 
down with sincere sorrow. We should be ready 
to manifest our generous sympathies by generous 
action. Our neighbour should have our friendly 
aid in all its various forms, not only in food and 
raiment, when these are needed, but in the more 
valuable guise of advice, warning, reproof, en- 
couragement ; that in the battle of life his failing 
virtues may be succoured, and his Christian 
graces be strengthened. 

Again : we are not to restrict our friendly aid 
to those manifestations which cost us nothing. 
"We should regard our neighbour, " not in word 
only, hut in deed and in tfutliP The troubles 
of those who are distressed " in mind, body, or 
estate," should stir our emotions, and create an 
earnest desire to relieve them. As far as in us 
lies, we should bind up the broken heart, and 
heal the wounded spirit. The essence of prac- 
tical religion, pure and undefiled tefore God 
a/nd the Father, is this : to visit the fatherless 
and widows in their affliction, and to Iceejp un- 
spotted from the worlds The patriarch of Uz 
could look back over his past life, and say : "Z 
put on righteousness, am^d clothed me : my judg- 
ment was as a robe and a diadem. I was eyes 
to the hlind, am^dfeet was I to the lameP " When 
the ear hea/rd me, then it Messed me / OMd when 
the eye sam me, it game witness to me ; because I 
delwered the poor that cried, a/nd the fatherless, 



( 

TENTH COMMANDMENT. 259 

omd him that had none to hel^ him. The 'bless- 
ing of him that was ready to perish came ujpon 
me^ and I ca/used the widow's heart to sing for 
joy.'' 

Our benevolence, too, should be like that of 
Him who maketh his sun to rise on the evil and 
on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on 
the unjust. We are not absolved from the duty 
of giving food to the hungry and clothing to the 
naked, even if we are able to show that improvi- 
dence has entailed poverty upon them. Even 
the vicious should have our sympathy in their 
distresses. In many cases, where pecuniary aid is 
needless or unavailing, kind words, and even 
silent pity, will distill balm upon the wound. 
Job's friends showed true delicacy when they 
came and sat with him in silence seven days, 
" for they saw that his grief was very great." A 
smile, a tear, a pleasant word, a kind look, has 
often cheered a heavy heart more effectually 
than the most liberal alms given with a cold 
hand and an unmoved countenance. Those who 
have stained themselves with crime are very 
susceptible of being won in this manner : and 
we have peculiar reasons for approaching them 
thus. "While we were yet sinners, Christ died" 
for us. Let us show that we are " partakers of 
the divine natm-e," by manifesting the same 
compassion for the fallen. K anything human 
can influence them, love will lure them back to 
virtue. Scorn and desertion will only harden 



260 



THE EIGHT WAY. 



their hearts, and tempt them to believe that 
they are forsaken of both God and man. And 
even if kindness fails to reach the indurated sonl, 
let us not be like the disciples, who, in their 
haste, would fain have called down fire from 
heaven upon their adversaries. Let us rather 
be like Him who wept over Jerusalem, and 
poured out the compassion of his mighty heart 
upon those who, a few days afterward, shouted 
infuriately, " Crucify him ! crucify him !" 

The moral and religious wants of others should 
not be overlooked. The bread of life is of far 
more value than " the bread that perisheth." It 
ministers to a nobler part of our nature; it 
imparts strength to the immortal, and " maketh 
man an angel." The man of enlightened be- 
nevolence will pity the neglected children of his 
vicious neighbours ; the deplorable condition of 
the isolated hamlet, where no Sabbath-bell sounds, 
and the glad tidings of great j oy are never heard ; 
the heathen, who, in their ignorance and their vile- 
ness, are bowing at the shrines of fancied deities, 
and pouring upon their foul altars the blood of 
infant helplessness and innocence. A man who 
feels true regard for his fellow-men will not 
forget those immediately around him in his zeal 
for some far-off mission ; nor will he make his 
regard for his neighbours a pretence for abandon- 
ing the rest of the world to their fate. Like a 
good Samaritan, he binds up the wounds of aU 
he finds fallen by the wayside. He would 



TENTH COMMANDMENT. 



261 



soothe eyery tortured breast, and wipe away 
every tear of sorrow, and his charity everywhere 
"droppeth as the gentle dew of heaven upon 
the place beneath." 

3. Contentment with the allotments of Provi- 
dence is enjoined. 

We must make a distinction, however, be- 
tween contentment and satisfaction. "While in 
this imperfect state, no man ought to be satisfied, 
in the strict sense of that term. This world can 
never satisfy him who has the " evidence of 
things not seen." The great apostle of the Gen- 
tiles beheved it to be far better to be with Christ, 
and consequently he felt a " desire to depart 
"Forgetting the things which are behind, and 
reaching forth unto those things which are be- 
fore," he pressed on toward the prize. Placed 
in a world over whose faii^est scenes sin has 
breathed its sirocco breath; where the eager 
soul is pent up in darkening walls, the object of 
every social affection as perishable as the fiower, 
and as fleeting as the dew, with sin and sorrow 
all around, and sore conflicts within, what ra- 
tional being could so far forget his native great- 
ness as to desire nothing better ? "Who that has 
caught even a glimpse of " the city which hath 
foundations," would wish to pitch his tent forever 
on the barren shifting sands of time ? "Who would 
wish to live alway, when, beyond the narrow 
stream of death, he sees the eternal verdure of 
the green pastures, and the bright sheen of the 



262 



THE EIGHT WAY. 



still waters, and knows that tlie moment he steps 
upon the other shore, the Christian becomes " as 
the angels of God ?" 

'Nor are men bonnd to be satisfied with their 
mental or physical condition, either as indi- 
viduals or as members of society. Progress is a 
law of our nature. By effort, the mind may be 
cultivated into greater strength ; and by train- 
ing, the heart may be rendered more susceptible 
of enjoyment. By labour, many public and 
private evils may be removed, and rich blessings 
be attained. If man, at any stage of civilization, 
could be satisfied therewith, all further advance 
would be checked, and the now tossing deep of 
mind would become a stagnant pool. It is right 
for every man to know and feel, that mentally, 
morally, and physically, his condition admits of 
improvement. It is right for him to labour ra- 
tionally for the amelioration of his state, that 
the pains of existence may be less, and its enjoy- 
ments more ; and that he may advance more 
rapidly in all that renders life, here or hereafter, 
desirable. 

Still, where he is not perfectly satisfied, man 
may be contented. He may hush his murmuring 
spirit to silence ; he may cease to charge God 
foolishly he may endure the unavoidable ills 
of time, without increasing them tenfold by 
fruitless repinings, and without deciding that 
Providence has visited him with shameful abuse. 
As the lone night-watcher cheers the slow hours 



TENTH COMMANDMENT. 263 



of darkness and gloom witli thoughts of the 
dewy morn, with its rosy dawn and glad sunrise, 
so he who feels that his caged soul would gladly 
soar away to a better clime than this, may de- 
rive strong consolation from his hope of a bright 
land above. Amid all the sorrows and annoy- 
ances of life, he may maintain a cheerful frame 
of mind, and look upon the good that strews his 
path, instead of continually seeking out things 
over which to moan. 

How absurd was the conduct of Haman. He 
could summon a crowd of friends to his palace, 
and there boast of his wealth, and power, and 
honour ; he could tell how his royal master had 
exalted him in the empire, placing him over 
princes and nobles. Millions were ready to fall 
at his feet, and do him homage; but was he 
happy ? Mark the words with which he closes 
his boastful discourse : ''All this maileth me 
nothing^ so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sit- 
ting at the hinges gateP The pleasure of possess- 
ing wealth and power was lost sight of, because 
one poor stubborn Israelite refused to throw him- 
self in the dust when the lordly glance of Haman 
fell upon him. 

Thus it is ever with discontented men. Provi- 
dence may lavish all temporal benefits. Health, 
strength, plenty, domestic peace, the presence 
of friends, and the commendations of their fel- 
lows, may all be given them ; but some restless 
desire, perhaps some imaginary want, renders 



264 



THE EIGHT WAY. 



their blessing valueless, and fills their souls with 
bitterness and repining. All this must be shun- 
ned by him who would be wise. Contentment, 
or self-restraint, implies the ruling of the pas- 
sions, desires, and affections. ISTo worldly pur- 
suit, however successful, can give permanent 
joy and peace. The love of money is as insa- 
tiate as death : " He that lomth silver^ shall not 
he satisfied with silver / nor he that loveth abun- 
dance, with increase.^^ The pleasm^es of this 
world soon fail to produce joyous emotion, and 
become wearisome. He that would satisfy the 
spirit's hunger with power, and the honour which 
Cometh of men, feeds on husks, and starves. 
How much wiser is it, then, to " know the bounds 
of our habitation," and reduce our desires to the 
level of attainability. He who suffers his eye 
to be caught by the mirage of earth, chases a 
phantom over a scorched desert, and dies of 
thirst at last, with the shadowy lake as far off 
as ever. 

The contented man does not close his eyes to 
the imperfections of his condition. He acknowl- 
edges their existence as readily as the most im- 
patient, and labours as earnestly to remove those 
which are removable. He may be an ardent 
advocate of all improvement, and yet be strictly 
consistent with his principles. He does not take 
refuge in brutish stoicism, but is keenly alive to 
all humane feelings and gentle emotions. Yet 
he governs himself ; nor loses the substance in 



TENTH COMMANDMENT. 



265 



vain efforts to seize the shadow. With all its 
imperfections, he sees that earth is a fitting place 
in which to discipline and reclaim a fallen na- 
ture ; and he acquiesces in the plan that has 
placed him here. Spread on every side are 
proofs that " God is love and he feels that 
blessings are infinitely greater than deserts. He 
serves his Maker with a glad heart, feeling that 
as life ebbs away, he is approaching the source 
of all good, and that the mercies that visit him 
here are but the spray of a swelling fountain, 
whose full streams shall soon gladden his eyes 
and ravish his heart. He rules his own spirit. 
Free from the covetousness of the worshippers 
of gold, vain pleasure, and fleeting honours, he 
rejoices in the hope of an existence infinitely 
better than this : and thus he has " songs in the 
house of his jpilgrimageP 

in. Reasons for the tenth commandment. 

1. Distinctions among men are unavoidable. 

Where so many things conspire to modify the 
degree of health, strength, and comeliness, how 
can all be physically equal ? As mental endow- 
ment depends to such an extent on physical con- 
stitution, educational advantages, and personal 
industry, how can aU hope to be equal in intel- 
lect? As wealth is affected by inheritance, 
energy, economy, and opportunity, there can be 
no equality of property. 

Again : if perfect equality existed, many 
12 



266 



THE EIGHT WAT. 



tilings which are now deemed desirable, would 
lose their charms. If every farmer should find 
an inexhaustible gold-mine in his fields, a geld 
currency would be an impossibility. Riches 
would be of little avail, if the wealthy could find 
no poor men to employ. Tame and power ne- 
cessarily imply distinctions among men. K all 
were equally agreeable in face and form, even 
vanity itself would find no pleasure in the pos- 
session of beauty. Whatever is possessed by all 
in the same degree, never tempts the possessor 
to be vain, nor the beholders to be envious. Who 
feels at all exalted by the mere fact that he pos- 
sesses two eyes ? And yet if this were an exceed- 
ingly rare occurrence, those thus endowed would 
be considered greatly favoured of God, and their 
superiority would be matter of general envy. 
Wealth, fame, beauty, power, are terms which 
necessarily imply the existence of their oppo- 
sites. No man can excel in anything, unless 
somebody is excelled. How idle, then, to repine 
that all have not the advantages and pleasures 
which belong to superiority. 

Again : the distinctions which exist among 
men may be divided into two classes : some 
come upon them without their own personal 
agency, and may therefore, in a certain sense, 
be styled providential ; and there are others 
which men create for themselves. Of which- 
ever class the evils which press upon us may be, 
what right have we to complain of them ? What 



TENTH COMMANDMENT. 26T 

right has a man to complain of poverty, if Jeho- 
vah has seen fit to make him know its stern 
lessons ? Or what right has he to complain, if 
his own indolence and folly have prevented ac- 
cumulation ; or if his vices have squandered the 
goodly inheritance which he received from his 
fathers ? With what justice does a man murmur 
against Jehovah because of a feeble constitution, 
when riotous living has broken him down ? And 
why should the envious and the indolent groan 
because the rewards of labour are given to those 
who have earned them by honest effort, instead 
of being bestowed upon those who lounge about 
eternally with their hands in their pockets, and 
yet whine about their poverty ? 

"We have supposed the ills of life to be divided 
into two classes ; those of God's creation, and 
those of our own ; but we are prone to insert too 
many in the first class, and too few in the second. 
Health and happiness are wasted by vice, and 
the victim of his own folly and sin deems it all 
divinely ordered. The merchant, insane with 
the love of money, wears out soul and body in 
the intense strife, and dies before his time : and 
the beholders think it strange that God should 
cut him off in the midst of his days. The profes- 
sional man who violates every law of health, 
eating abundantly of the richest food, and sitting 
motionless twenty hours out of the twenty-four 
at his books, or perhaps puffing his very life to 
the winds in foul tobacco stench, breaks down 



268 



THE EI&HT WAY. 



in early youth ; and people piously roll up their 
eyes, and sigh, "What a mysterious Providence !" 
Thus man coolly lays his own blunders at the 
door of Providence, and congratulates himself 
on his marvellous resignation if he refrains from 
railing out at his Maker in "good set terms.' 
But this is worse than folly ; it is blasphemy. 

2. The rich and the poor are aids to each other. 

It is evident that wealth needs the aid of 
poverty. K his poorer neighbours should refuse 
to enter his employ, Croesus would be compelled 
to shoe his own horse, harvest his own grain, 
and cook his own dinner. "Wealth will purchase 
much ; but that which it buys is labour, in one 
form or another. Almost every article of luxury 
or of necessity has been connected with labour ; 
and if there were none to work for wages, the 
rich man's supplies would be cut off at once. 
Cast away upon the island of his own wealth, he 
would be driven to all manner of rude devices 
to supply his wants. 

It is also evident that the poor gain by the 
presence of the rich. Wealth lays out farms, 
and builds manufactories, and thus furnishes the 
multitude with employment. It sets in motion 
the presses which fill the land with light. It 
erects churches, " where rich cmd poor meet to- 
gether ^ (md the Lord is the Maker of them alV* 
ISTo good thing, wealth, physical strength, talent, 
ability of any kind, can be so monopolized as 
to benefit and please no one biit its possessor. 



TENTH COMMANDMENT. 269 



If genius paints a sunny picture, other eyes be- 
hold its glowing colours. K it pens a glorious 
poem, ten thousand hearts throb quick beneath 
the spell. K wealth builds a noble mansion, the 
workmen who performed the labour are bene- 
fitted ; the poor man whose cottage is across the 
way has a better yiew of its fair proportions 
than he who dwells within its walls ; and the 
brilliant rays which stream from its windows at 
night light even the beggar on his wandering 
path. Wealth may plant its pleasure-grounds 
with all manner of trees, and deck its bowers 
with all manner of fragrant flowers ; yet the 
passer-by, who glances over the wall for a mo- 
ment, may drink in more exquisite enjoyment 
than he who calls it his own. 

The rich and the poor should therefore view 
each other as friends, whose office it is not to 
despise, envy, or hate, but to love, defend, and 
aid each other. The difference in their condition 
fits them for mutual assistance, and each has 
precisely what the other needs. An army with- 
out officers, and officers without an army, would 
be equally unprepared to go forth to victorious 
battle. "Without the help of the poor, the rich 
would at once be involved in extreme difficulty ; 
while to deprive society of all the benefits origin- 
ating in previous accumulation, would be to bid 
the shadow go back on the dial of civilization 
itself. How absurd and wicked is it to utter the 
cry of anarchy and plunder : " Tlie rich against 



2t0 



THE EIGHT WAT. 



the poor," and thus inflame the one against the 
other, as if thej were natural enemies. A com- 
munity where all are rich, is an impossibility — 
a community where all are destitute, is barbar- 
ism and degradation. 

3. " Thou shalt not covet," because happiness 
dwells in the soul, and springs not necessarily 
from the soil of wealth, fame, or power. 

Solomon the Wise has said, that " There is 
nothing better for a man than that he should eat 
cmd d/rvrik^ and that he should make his soul 
enjoy good in his labour y" that is, as I under- 
stand it, rational happiness does not depend upon 
those things which the few only can attain, and 
which create distinctions among men, but springs 
rather from a right reception of those ordinary 
blessings which grow in every man's path. The 
voice of God utters the same truth in another 
place : " Take heed^ and beware of covetousness / 
for a man^s life consisteth not in the ahunda/nce 
of the things which he jpossessethP Let us pause 
a moment over this latter passage. It is evident 
that man's natural life does not depend upon his 
wealth. When death has laid his icy hand upon 
his shuddering victim, all the gold of earth can 
not bribe him to relax his resolute grasp ; nor 
do the rich, as a class, enjoy longer hfe or better 
health than their poorer neighbours. The indo- 
lence and luxury which follow in the train of 
riches are more destructive to the constitution 
than the poor man's toils and cares, l^or does 



f 

TENTH COMMANDMENT. 271 

the true enjoyment of life depend upon riches. 
It is said that an Asiatic prince, who was exceed- 
ingly discontented and miserable in the midst 
of magnificence, called his wise men together, 
and demanded to know what he must do to be 
happy. He was directed to exchange coats with 
the happiest man in his realm. After a long- 
search, the fortunate person was found ; but, lo ! 
he was a poor fellow who had no coat at all. 
The fact is, the rich have as many unsatisfied 
desires as the poor. Their wants may not be 
precisely of the same kind ; but they are full as 
pressing and vexatious. Agur's prayer was, 
" Gwe me neither poverty nor richest His suc- 
ceeding observations show that, by " poverty," 
he referred to real want ; and that what he de- 
sired was simply the supply of a reasonable 
man's necessities. Such is the happy lot of those 
who possess this " goodly heritage," this land of 
plenty, that to have only enough seems poverty. 
The truth is, new desires spring up with every 
addition to wealth, and no increase of substance 
can fill the void. A merchant said, that when 
'he set out in business, he wished to be rich. His 
wife, more moderate in her expressions, declared 
that she did not aim so high as this ; she wished 
merely to be comfortable. He added, that he 
had been what he termed rich for years, but his 
wife was not " comfortable " yet. Every addi- 
tion to her husband's coffers had caused her ideas 
of " comfort " to expand ; her vanity and ambi- 



THE BIGHT WAY. 



tion had grown as rapidly as his wealth, and she 
was still -unsatisfied — still in want. The dread 
of poverty is alleged by physicians to be a quite 
frequent cause of insanity ; and it is a very curi- 
ous and instructive fact, that not the poor, but 
the rich alone, thus lose their reason. 

'Nor does the great object of life depend upon 
the possession of wealth. Temptations cluster 
thick about the soul of the rich man. The destruc- 
tive pleasures of sin are more within his reach. 
He can command a fuller supply, and a more 
captivating variety of enjoyments, and conse- 
quently he is in greater danger. Pride, ambi- 
tion, luxury, sensuality, in all its forms, are 
helped on by wealth ; and the soul becomes 
clogged and fallen in the mire, and can no more 
spread its wings for heavenward flight. He who 
knew " what was in man," said, " Mow Jia/rdly 
shall they that have riches enter into the hviigdom 
of God:' 

4. " Thou shalt not covet for " the love of 
money is the root of all eviV 

" They that will le rich, [desire to be rich,] 
fall i/nto tem/ptation a/nd a sna/re, a/nd into mam/ 
foolish a/nd hurtful lusts, which drown men in 
destruction am^d perdition:' The love of money 
may aid in the commission of every sin forbidden 
in the word of God. "We turn to the first pre- 
cept, " Thou shalt hme no other gods tefore me.'' 
But man may " mahe gold his hope, and say to 
the fine gold, Thou a/rt waj confidence'' and thus 



TENTH COMMANDMENT. 273 

set up a false object of worship. We are com- 
manded to avoid " covetousness^ which is idolatry.''^ 
We turn to the second commandment, which for- 
bids the use of images, or symbols of God, as the 
media of worship : a mob shouted. Great is Diana 
of the Ephesians, when they feared that the gospel 
of truth would break up their trade in images and 
shrines. Shall we consider this matter, with 
reference to the law prohibiting profanity ? The 
loss of a little gold or silver has caused many a 
man to curse, till every ear tingled. The love 
of money may also prompt to desecration of the 
Sabbath, and to disobedience to parents. It 
prompts men to commit or abet murder, unclean- 
ness, theft, and perjured witness, l^ot a sin can 
be mentioned, but the love of money may in 
some way, direct or indirect, be enlisted in its 
favour, and help on its commission. "Where it 
may not plunge its victim into open, gross trans- 
gression, it often "hardens all within, and pet- 
rifies the feelings." It congeals the tide of 
domestic felicity ; it causes the whole current of 
thought to run in one channel, and shuts up the 
soul in the shell of selfishness. It creates a dis- 
taste for the more simple and more attainable 
pleasures of life, and fills the heart with a hunger 
and thirst after gold, which no gold can satisfy. 
The word miser means miserable ; and the undue 
love of money, even in its mildest form, when it 
does not make direct war upon the happiness 
and the rights of others, is productive of misery 
12* 



THE EIGHT WAT. 



and sin. Thus, as we have seen, the love of 
money prompts to evil, marshals in its dark 
train every human vice, and allies itself to de- 
pravity in all its forms. It is the identical spirit 
which, when it " enter eth into a mem, taJceth with 
him seven other spirits more wicked thorn him- 
self, and they enter in, mid dwell thereP It 
chiUs the fountain of charity and love, breathes 
a blight npon every green spot, and turns the 
garden of the soul into a desert. 

5. Covet not the wealth which brings exemp- 
tion from labour ; for labour is not a curse, but 
a blessing. 

"Were man spotless, the case might possibly 
be different ; but fallen as he is, he stands in 
need of the rugged discipline of mental and 
physical toil. This strife, this resolute effort, 
which fills the land with plenty, and which pro- 
vides the means of study and cultivation, enno- 
bles him. Labour levels the forest, builds the 
city, bridges the stream, launches the vessel, erects 
the manufactory and drives its thousand whir- 
ring wheels. Labour builds the church, and 
prints the Bible ; it heals the sick, clothes the 
naked, and feeds the hungry. Labour sets up 
the printing-press, and with its own hard, brown 
hand, transmits the mental labours of one gen- 
eration to all who come after it. Without labour, 
man is a barbarian ; and any race will rise or 
degenerate about in the degree that they become 
industrious or indolent. And can we fancy that 



TENTH COMMANDMENT. 2Y6 



the world is so out of joint, so woven of incon- 
gruities, that the thing which is essential to 
human welfare and human progress is to be 
accounted an evil to those immediately engaged 
in it ? 'Naj ; labour, whether of mind or of the 
muscles, is honourable to all. 

Labour, too, lends a helping hand in the moral 
world. Idleness is itself a vice. It cannot be 
an innocent thing for a man upon whom God 
has bestowed strength of muscle and vigour of 
mind, to suffer those gifts to lie unemployed. 
They are talents, the due improvement of which 
is due to their Giver, to their possessor, and to 
society. He would be visited with severest 
censure who, while men around him were per- 
ishing with thirst, would fill with sand, and thus 
conceal a well which he had discovered in the 
desert. He would be condemned, who, in time 
of famine, would destroy the food which sustains 
life. But more is he to be condemned, who is 
endowed of God with a noble intellect, and who, 
while every mental and moral field around him 
is white to the harvest, suffers the sharp sickle 
which has been placed in his hand to consume 
with idleness and rust. 

Jf sloth and inaction be wrong, why deem it 
a blessing, or hope to derive happiness from it ? 
Why covet riches, that mental and physical toil 
may cease? Labour is man's friend. It sup- 
plies his wants ; it preserves his health ; it so 
occupies his time, that multiplied temptations, 



276 



THE RIGHT WAT. 



which, would otherwise prostrate him in the dust, 
fall powerless at his feet. It not only imparts 
solidity and strength to the material frame, but 
gives vigour, energy, and firmness to the mind. 
In the world of intellect, toil is the price of great- 
ness. It disciplines for noble action, and leads 
on to eminence. The strength of a nation con- 
sists not in its broad, fertile plains, nor its mines 
of gold. It lies rather in the arms that labour, 
the hearts that feel, and the brains that think. 
"Why, then, count the due exercise of all these 
an enemy, to be driven off by angry resistance, 
or eluded by stratagem ? 

But reply may be made, that riches are de- 
sirable ; not that effort may cease, but that 
necessity's stem power may not be felt. This 
is a false plea. Without the necessity for la- 
bour, it will generally cease. When toil be- 
comes needless, indolence begins its leaden reign. 
Ambition, vanity, or habit, may stir an indi- 
vidual here and there ; but, as a class, the wealthy 
cease to be energetic and industrious. Heredit- 
ary riches, especially, cause families and races 
to degenerate ; while necessity brings intellect 
and ability to view, as gloomy night brings out 
the stars. 

Then covet not ; for wealth can do but little 
to render life peaceful. It lays open to new 
temptations, and pierces through with many 
sorrows. Covet it not ; for happiness springs 
rather from the thoughtful intellect, the chasten- 



TENTH COMMANDMENT. 277 



ed affections, the approving conscience, the pure 
heart. Covet it not for children ; for it is no 
more needful for them than for jou. And, above 
all, " Lay wp for yoursel/ces treasures in hea/cen^ 
where neither moth nor rust doth corrwpt^ and 
wJwre thi&oes do not hreah through nor steal. 
For where your treasure is, there will you/r heart 
he alsoP 



'I 'H Hi END. 



Books published and for sale by Carlton & Phillips. 



THE YOUNG LADY'S COTJNSELLOE ; or, OUTLINES 
AND ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE SPHERE, THE DUTIES, AND 
THE DANGERS OF YOUNG WOMEN. Eighth Thousand. 
62 cents. Gilt, 87. 

NOTICES. 

This book contains eleven chapters, bearing the following titles, 
namely : " The Mistake of a Lifetime." 2. " The Fountain of Life 
Unsealed." 3. " Influence." 4. " The True Sphere of Woman." 
5. " Loveliness of Spirit." 6. " Self-reliance." 7. " The Secret 
Springs of Self-reliance." 8, " Of Self-culture." 9. " The Young 
Lady at Home." 10. " The Young Lady from Home." 11. " Court- 
ship and Marriage." These topics, all of which are of the highest im- 
portance to the persons addressed, are discussed in the author's very 
best style. The English tongue can furnish no better language than is 
found here. The illustrations with which this work abounds delight 
the reader, rivet her attention, and convey to her mind, in a clear and 
forcible manner, the author's meaning. Let every mother procure this 
book for her daughter. Let the pastor recommend it to every family 
within his charge. Be assured that in so doing- you confer an incalcula- 
ble boon. — Correspondent of Herald and Journal. 

We deem this the best book for young women, next to the Bible, that 
we have ever read. It embraces every subject that can be to them, as 
a class, of peculiar interest — .Advocate and Family Guardian. 

II. 

THE PATH OF LIFE ; or, SKETCHES OF THE WAY TO 
GLORY AND IMMORTALITY. Upwards of fifteen thousand 
copies of this work has been sold since its publication, in January, 1848. 
Price 50 cts. 

I have read this work with lively interest and profit. I know of no 
work in the English language so well calculated to assist and establish 
young converts. — Rev. J. Caughey. 

EBIDAL GEEETINGS. A marriage gift, in which the mutual 
duties of husband and wife are familiarly illustrated and enforced. 
Fifth edition. 30 cts. 

IV. 

CHRISTIAN LOVE. By Rev n. Wise 05 cts 

V 

PERSONAL EFFORT. By Rev U. Wise 20 cts 

AUNT EFFIE ; or, THE PIOUS WIDOW AND HER INFI- 
DEL BROTHER. By Rev. D. Wise. 30 cts. 

VII. 

GUIDE TO THE SAVIOR; or, the LAMBS OF THE 
FLOCK LED TO THEIR GREAT SHEPHERD. 25 cts. 



"WORKS PUBLISHED BY CAELTON & PHILLIPS, 

200 Mulberry-street, New-York. 



Dixon's Tour in the U. States and Canada. 

Personal Narrative of a Tovir through a part of the United 
States and Canada. With Notices of the History and In- 
stitutions of Methodism in America. By James Dixon, 
D. D. With a fine Portrait. 

12mo., pp. 431. Muslin SO 75 

Personal Narrative of a Tour through a Part of the United 
States and Canada. With Notices of the History and In- 
stitutions of Methodism in America. Containing, also, 
the Fifth Part, heretofore omitted in the American editions. 
By James Dixon, D. D. With a fine Portrait. 

12mo., pp. 560. Muslin SI 00 

To say that the volume altogether is very interesting, would be 
what is said of many books of travel ; but this does not come 
up to our ideas of the work now before us. It is full of interest 
and instruction, and is written in a style that cannot fail to please 
every reader of good taste and sound judgment. — Nashville 
Christian Advocate. 
Dr. Dixon's book is a very great improvement upon those of most 
Eng-lish tourists, who have passed rapidly through this country. 
He judges more correctly of the spirit and character of the peo- 
ple, and forms a juster estimate of the nature and bearing of 
our institutions. — Watchman and Observer. 
The many quotations we have made from tliis book sliow that we 
think well of it. The personal narrative is very pleasant ; the 
descriptions of American scener}^ in which it abounds, are often 
very striking ; its views of American character and customs 
are liberal and instructive. It is a book calcalated to allay pre- 
judice in our own country, and remove misconception in Great 
Britain. The second part of the work is devoted to a very full 
exposition of Methodism in America, its history, institution, 
present state, &c. — National Era. 
To the Methodist reader, especiEilly, though by no means exclu- 
sively, the information contained in these notices will be equally 
interesting and valuable. AU who know Dr. Dixon would be 
led to anticipate this in a work written by him, and we assure 
them that they will not be disappointed. — Wesleyan Magazine. 

Philosophy of Food and Nutrition. 

The Philosophy of Food and Nutrition in Plants and Ani- 
mals. By Rev. E. Sidney, A. M. 

18mo., pp. 198. Muslin $0 50 

One of that valuable class of works in which scientific facts are 
' represented in snch a form as fo he both compreheTisibJe svin 
i interesting to general readers.— iVew-YcrA: Christian Advocate 
and Journal. 



WORKS PUBLISHED BY CARLTON & PHILLIPS, j 

200 !\Iulberry-street, New-York. | 
j 

Fletcher, {Mary,) Life of. 

Life of Mrs. Mary Fletcher, Consort and Relict of Rev. Jolm 
Fletcher. Compiled from her Joirrnal and other authentic 
Doeuments. By Henry Moore. Eleventh thousand. 

12mo., pp. 298. Muslin or sheep SO 70 

Do. gilt edges 1 00 

The life of Mrs. Fletcher is too well known to require particular 
description, and too highly valued to call for renewed recom- 
mendation. 

One principle, indeed, was evident throughout Mrs. Fletcher's 
long life — full resignation to the will of God. Another leading 
trait in her character was faith. Her faith was strong ; she 
" staggered not at the promises through unbelief." Ma> her 
pure, sound, Scriptural faith prevail among those who may read 
her memoirs I — Wesleyan Magazine. 



Old Humphrey' s Worhs. 

Half Hours with Old Humphrey. Revised hy Rev. D. P. 
Kidder. 

12mo., pp. 278. Muslin SO 60 

Old Humphrey is a universal favourite ; he is capable of making 
the dullest subjects interesting. What is still better, he turns 
every subject to a religious account. No essay of his fails to 
exhibit the excellence or the obligations of true piety. Such 
writings may be recommended with confidence for the use of 
families. 



Bramwell, (JViUiain) Life of. 

Memoir of the Life and Ministry of Mr. William Bramwell, 
lately an itinerant Methodist Preacher ; with Extracts from 
his extensive and interesting Correspondence. By James 
SiGSTON. Foia-ieenth thousand. 

ISmo., pp. 341. Muslin or sheep $0 40 

It is valuable for the information it gives us of his true yet pain- 
ful conversion, the conduct of his parents when he became a 
Methodist, his first interview with Mr. Wesley, his first attempt 
to preach, his receiving of the blessing of full sanctification, 
his practice of ecclesiastical discipline, his spirit of prayer, his 
efficient manner of conducting prayer-meetings, his temptations 
to give up preaching, his persecution, his treatment of his chil- j 
dren, his preaching especially of the doctrine of entire holiness, [ 
his success and his end. He was a " man of God." God's cause | 
was his c-au.se.— ChTistinn Guardian. ■ 



WORKS PTJBnSHED BY CAELTON & PHILLIPS, 

200 Mulberrv-street, New -York. 



Fletcher of Madeley, Life of. 

Life of John Fletclier, compiled from Wesley's Narrative, the 
Biographical Xotes of Mr. Gilpin, from his own Letters, 
and other authentic Documents, many of which were never 
before published. By Joseph Bexson. Sixth thousand. 
12nio., pp. 358. Muslin or sheep $0 65 

Many exemplary men have I known, holy in heart and life, within 
fourscore years ; but one equal to him I have not known, one 
so inwardly and outwcirdJy devoted to God. — John Wesley. 

No age or country has ever produced a man of more fervent piety 
or more perfect charity ; no church has ever possessed a more 
apostohc minister. — Robert Southey. 

Mr. Fletcher was one of the holiest men that ever lived ; next to 
Mr. Wesley, he was the ablest advocate of the Methodist truths ; 
and no man ever adorned them by a purer life, or a more burn- 
ing, active love. — Thos. Jackson. 

A man mighty in the Scriptures, and full of the unction of God. — 
Dr. a. Clarke. 



Fletcher s Letters. 

Letters of the Rev. John Fletchek, Ticar of Madeley. Oi'i- 
ginally edited by Rev. Melyili;e Hoene, Curate of Made- 
ley. With a Portrait of jVLt. Fletcher. Third thousand. 
12mo., pp. 334. Muslin $0 65 

Such sweetness and devotion of love ; such heavenly unction, 
and so lull of Christ — they are among the most affecting and 
engaging of devotional writings, and deserve a place with the 
letters of Doddridge, Cowper, and Newton. — JV. Y. Evangelist. 

These letters are full of the spirit of pi^ty. No man can read 
them, who has a spark of rehgion in his heart, without feeling 
his love enkindled to a flame. — Methodist Protestant. 

Fletcher's Letters are a transcript of his mind— a visible embodi- 
ment of his spirit, and cannot be too strongly studied, or too 
deeply imbibed. — Pittsburgh Christian Advocate. 

These eminently sweet and spiritual epistles have long been out 
of print in a separate form, and the agents have performed a 
good service to the Church in the issue of this beautiful edition. 
Every Sabbath-school library should be graced with this treasury- 
of purity and piety — Zion's Herald. 

I Finley's Memorials of Prison Life. 

I Memorials of Prison Life. By Rev. J. B. Fdtley, Chaplain 

I to the Ohio State Prison. Edited by Dr. Tefft. 

I 12nio., pp. S54. Muslin SO 75 



4- 




WORKS PUBLISHED BY CARLTON & PHILLIPS, 

200 Mulberry-street, New-York. 



Parker s {Mrs.) Chnstian Church. 

Annals of the Christian Church, in Familiar Conversations 
for Young Persons. By Mrs. Pakker. Second thousand. 
18mo., pp. 324. Muslin or sheep $0 35 

This work was especially composed for the use of the young. Its 
aim is to convey, in a familiar style, such a view of the chief 
occurrences in ecclesiastical history as may furnish the youth- 
ful mind with a general knowledge of the subject, and prepare 
the way for more extensive and careful researches. Attention 
is paid to the order of events, to the external forms which 
Christianity has assumed in different ages, and to the great 
principles which no time or place can change, and which must 
always constitute the basis of the true Church of Christ. 

We very cordially recommend this excellent volume. Why should 
the young have abridged histories of Greece, Rome, &c., and 
the history of Christ's Church be withheld from them ? We do 
not, however, mean to say that this is only a book for the young. 
Those who have not time for the perusal of larger works, will 
find these " Annals " to be far more than a mere sketch of events 
and dates. 

Wesley's Letters. 

Select Letters, chiefly on Personal Eeligion. By Rev. John 
Wesley. With a Sketch of his Character, by Rev. Samuel 
Beadbuen. Third thousand. 

12mo., pp. 240. Muslin or sheep $0 50 

Mr. Wesley's Letters were written not to circulate idle gossip, 
or to nourish a sickly sentimentality, but to urge forward his 
correspondents in the divine life, that they might attain all the 
mind there was in Christ, and make their caUing and election 
sure. They present an agreeable variety of subjects ; and it is 
hoped they will prove acceptable to a numerous class of read- 
ers to whom the entire works of the venerable writer are inac- 
cessible. To the use of the closet, and of private reading, it is 
presumed, they are especially adapted. The " Sketch of Mr. 
Wesley's Character," by which the letters are introduced, con- 
tains several interesting notices concerning the founder of 
Methodism which are not generally known. 

Curiosities of Animal Life. 

Curiosities of Animal Life, as developed by the Recent Dis- 
coveries of the Microscope. With Illustrations and Index. 
Revised by Rev. D. P. Kiddee. 

16mo., pp. 184. Muslin SO 50 

Oi.e of tlie most novel and interesting books of the times. 



3K- —— — 

PUBLISHED FOR THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION OF 
THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 



DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE. 

Designed for the Use of Sunday- School Teachers and Families. 
BY REV. JAMES COVEL. 

ILLUSTRATED WITH MAPS AND ENGKAVINGS. 

Price 75 cents. 

BARR'S BIBLE INDEX AND DICTIONARY: 

in which the various Persons, Places, and Subjects mentioned are 
accurately referred to ; and 

DIFFICULT WORDS BRIEFLY EXPLAINED. 

12mo. 50 cents. 

NOTES ON THE GOSPELS: 

Illustrative and Explanatory. Arranged in Chronological Order. 
BY JOSEPH LONGKING. 

DESIGNED TO ACCOMPANY LONGKING's QUESTIONS. 

Four volumes, 18mo. Price $2 00. 

WESLEY'S NOTES. 

Explanatory Notes on the New Testament. By Rev. John Wesley. 

A NEW EDITION, IN PEARL TYPE. 

One volume, small 12mo. Price One dollar. 

WESLEYAN CATECHISMS. 

Number I. For children of tender years: Eighteen cents a dozen. 

No. II. For children of seven and upward; and 
No. III. On the evidences of Christianity : each 50 cents a dozen. 
Bound in one volume, 21 cents. 



CENTENARY OF METHODISM: 

A brief Sketch of the Rise, Progress, and Present Statf of ihr 
Wesleyan Methodist Societies throughout the World. 
BY REV. THOMAS JACKSON. 
One volume, r2uio. Price Seventy -five ct 



PUBLISHED FOR THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION OF 
THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 



INFANT TEACHER'S MANUAL, 

For the Use of Sunday Schools and Families : containing Fifty -two 
Scripture Lessons for Infants, with Hynms. 

BY REV. DANIEL WISE. 
Price 25 cents. Bound in muslin, 31 cents. 

HORNE'S INTRODUCTION 

i To the Study of the Bible. Abridged edition. ]2mo. $1 00 

LIFE OF DR. ADAM CLARKE. 

An abridged edition. 18mo. Price 24 cents. In muslin, 31 cents. 

LIFE OE REV. RICHARD WATSON, 

AUTHOR OF THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTES, DICTIONARY, ETC. 

Price 30 cents. In muslin, 36 cents. 



LIFE OF REV. LEGH RICHMOND, 

AUTHOR OF THE DAIRYMAN'S DAUGHTER, YOUNG COTTAGER, ETC. 

Price 28 cents. In masiin, 34 cents. 



ELIZABETH BALES: 

A Pattern for Sunday- School Teachers and Tract Distribute r.s. 
BY J. A. JAMES. 
Price 16 cents. In muslin, 22 cents. 

KINGDOM OF HEAVEN AMONG CHILDREN: 

C)r Twenty-five Narratives of a Religious Awakening in a School 
in Pomerania. Translated from the German. 
Price 16 cents. In muslin, 22 cents'. 

ONE TALENT IMPROVED: 

Or, the Life of Susan G. Bowler, a Successful S. S. Teacher. 

BY B. K. PIERCE. 

Price 23 cents. In muslin, 31 cents. 
^ jjj 





PUBLISHED FOR THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION OF 
THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 



OLD HUMPHREY. 

Selections from Old Humphrey's Observations and Addresses 
18mo. Price 22 cents. In muslin, 28 cents. 

GERMS OF THOUGHT. 

Intended to promote the Mental and Religious Improvement 
of Youth. 

BY JOSEPH SUTCLIFFE, M. A. 
Price 24 cents. In muslin, 31 cents. 

EPHRAIM HOLDING'S HOMELY HINTS 

TO SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHERS. 

l8mo. Price 24 cents. In muslin, 31 cents. 

THE PATRIARCHS. 

One volume, large 18rao. Pages 240. Illustrated vpith engravings. 
Price 26 cents. In muslin, 33 cents. 

JOURNEYS OF THE ISRAELITES. 

Journeys of the Children of Israel ; and their Settlement in the 
Promised Land. 
18mo. Price 27 cents. In muslin, 33 cents. 

THE MIRACLES OF CHRIST; 

With explanatory Observations, & Illustrations from Modem 'IVaveis. 

INTENDED FOR THE YOUNG. 

18mo. Price 27 cents. In muslin, 33 cents. 

THE JEW 

Among all Nations. Illustrated with numerous Engravings. 
Price 21 cents. In muslin, 23 cents. 

THE EGYPTIAN. 

By the Author of the Jew. With numerous Engravings. 
Price 21 cents. In muslin, 25 cents. 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: Nov. 2005 

Preservationlechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724) 779-2111 



0 017 050 838 5 



